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January  1928 


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Some   African    Highways 


SOME  AFRICAN 
HIGHWAYS 

A   JOURNEY   OF   TWO    AMERICAN    WOMEN    TO 
UGANDA  AND  THE  TRANSVAAL 

BY 

CAROLINE  KIRKLAND 

With  an  Introduction  by 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  BADEN-POWELL 

IVith  Illustrations  from  'Photographs  and  a  Map 


BOSTON 

DANA    ESTES    &    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Engineering 
library 

Copyright,  igo8 
By  Dana  Estes  &  Company 


All  rights  reserved 


COLONIAL   PRESS 

EUctrotyPed  and  Printed  by  C.  H.  Simonds  &>  Co. 

Boston,  U.S.A. 


DEDICATED 

TO  MY  MOTHER 

THE  BEST  OF  FELLOW 

TRAVELLERS 


Pref 


ace 


TVTUCH  of  the  material  in  this  volume  first 
appeared  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  in  1906. 
I  have,  however,  added  a  good  deal  of  new 
matter.  I  have  taken  especial  pains  to  bring 
the  chapter  on  Sleeping-sickness  up  to  date, 
with  the  help  of  official  reports  furnished  me 
by  authorities  in  that  part  of  Africa  where 
this  terrible  scourge  prevails. 

This  narrative  is,  however,  merely  a  de- 
scription of  a  trip  made  by  two  American 
women  to  Uganda  and  the  Transvaal.  It  is 
pubHshed  with  the  hope  of  interesting  other 
Americans  in  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and 
unique  tours  in  the  world  —  a  tour  which  can 
be  made  with  entire  safety  and  great  comfort. 
Where  else  can  you  look  out  from  railway 
carriage  windows  and  see  zebras,  gnus,  giraffes, 
hyenas  and  even  lions  as  you  steam  through 

vii 


PREFACE 

a  land?  Where  else  will  you  see  utter  savagery 
and  the  intricate  ceremony  of  modem  social 
life  in  close  contact?  Where  else  will  you  see 
such  contrasting  methods  side  by  side  as  you 
see-  here  in  Africa  where  English,  French, 
Germans,  ItaHans,  Belgians  and  Portuguese 
are  addressing  the  same  problems  in  their 
different  ways?  And  what  other  great  conti- 
nent can  you  circumnavigate  in  ease  and  com- 
fort and  security? 

To  the  lover  of  strong  contrasts,  of  high  lights 
and  black  shadows,  of  wonderful  scenery,  of 
great  spaces,  of  all  that  is  new  and  free  and 
stirring,  I  recommend  a  trip  to  this  dark,  myste- 
rious, violent  and  enchanting  country.  We 
two  women  only  touched  the  surface  of  it, 
but  we  were  ever  conscious  of  much  that  we 
could  not  see,  nor  hear,  nor  formulate,  but 
which  exists  in  a  land  teeming  with  fierce  and 
savage  life. 

Caroline  Kirkland. 


vui 


orewon 


T  TOW  I  should  like  to  be  a  woman!  It  must 
be  nice  to  lie  back  in  your  cushions  and 
watch  the  men  doing  things  which  they  think 
very  clever,  knowing  all  the  time  that  you  can 
do  them  very  much  better  yourself  if  you  only 
care  to  try. 

For  instance :  I  am  convinced  that  if  women 
were  to  take  up  the  art  of  scouting  they  would 
easily  beat  men  at  the  game. 

They  have  a  greater  natural  gift  of  observa- 
tion and  a  most  uncannily  clever  knack  of 
'*  putting  this  and  that  together  "  and  then 
deducing  meaning  from  the  smallest  signs. 

Hence  it  comes  that  when  women  travel  into 
the  lesser-known  countries  of  the  world,  as 
they  frequently  do  nowadays,  they  bring  this 
power  of  observation  into  play  with  remark- 
able results.     And  of  all  women  in  the  world 

ix 


FOREWORD 

I  would  place  our  American  cousins  at  the  top 
of  the  list  for  this  particular  quality. 

Unfortunately  it  is  only  too  seldom  that  they 
record  their  impressions,  but  when  they  do 
their  pages  ripple  with  little  touches  both  quaint 
and  human  which  are  the  direct  result  of  quick 
observation  and  which  go  to  paint  the  character 
of  countries  and  people  far  more  vividly  than 
the  more  erudite  writings  of  the  mere  man 
who  plods  along  basing  his  remarks  very  largely 
on  what  he  has  already  read  or  been  told  of  the 
coimtry  now  spread  out  before  him. 

East  Africa  has  only  of  recent  years  come 
within  the  range  of  civilized  travel,  and  is 
still  a  land  of  romantic  suggestion  as  well  as 
of  future  interest,  with  an  atmosphere  of  piracy 
and  slave-trade  still  haunting  its  palm-grown 
coral  inlets,  where  grave  old  Arab  merchants 
roll  in  wealth  derived  from  ivory  both  of  the 
black  as  well  as  white  variety.  Here  still  you 
see  barbaric  tribes  of  naked  warriors  ready  for 
blood  with  their  war-songs  and  weapons. 
And    you   may   yet    "  snap  "    the   prehistoric 


FOREWORD 

rhinoceros  on  the  same  quarter-plate  with  a 
mighty  modem  locomotive  on  the  Uganda  line. 
Here  too  you  can  watch  the  Western  white- 
clad  pioneer  at  his  work  of  pushing  back  the 
jimgle  to  give  room  for  future  fields  of  com- 
merce. 

These  and  many  more  are  things  which  have, 
it  is  true,  been  written  about  already  by  men 
connected  with  those  parts,  but  in  the  present 
volume  a  lady-scout  has  taken  them  in  hand 
from  a  different  and  less  tedious  point  of  view. 

Having  been  over  much  of  the  ground  one- 
self one  can  only  envy  the  quick  perception  and 
accuracy  of  touch  with  which  Miss  Caroline 
Kirkland  has,  in  few  words,  so  faithfully 
sketched  the  minor  points  which  go  to  make 
these  lands  the  fascinating  fields  they  are  to 
all  who  visit  them. 

R.  S.  S.  Baden  -  Powell, 

Lieut.  -  Gen'L 


XI 


Contents 


CHAPTBR 
I. 

Historical    Sketch    of    East    Africa 

FACB 

AND  Uganda n 

II. 

From  Naples  to  Mombasa 

36 

III. 

The  Uganda  Railroad  . 

58 

IV. 

Entebbe      

90 

V. 

A  Holiday  in  Uganda    . 

113 

VI. 

The  Sleeping-sickness  . 

131 

VII. 

The  Baganda    . 

164 

VIII. 

Leaving  Entebbe      . 

.         184 

IX. 

The  Journey  Continued 

.      200 

X. 

To  Dar  Es  Salaam 

.      221 

XI. 

From  East  to  South  Africa 

.       243 

XII. 

The  Rand  Chinese  . 

.       261 

XIII. 

Mozambique  to  Zanzibar 

.      279 

XIV. 

A  Trip  to  Bu  Bu  Bu 

.      296 

XV. 

The  Last  of  the  Tropics 

•      313 

XVI. 

Our  Final  Excitement  . 

.      323 

XVII. 

A  Word  of  Counsel 

.      338 

List  of  Illustrations 


PACK 

Market-place  at   Entebbe        .         .        Frontispiece 

Map facing       ii 

Namirembe  Cathedral  (Protestant)  Uganda  .  15 
RiPON  Falls,  from  Usoga  Side.        .        .        .15 

Kavirondo  Warrior 29 

Masai  Women 29 

A  Native  Canoe  — Uganda  ....  43 
Fish  Traps,  Victoria  Nyanza    ...         -43 

Kavirondo  Group 55 

Uganda  Women  in  Bark  Cloth         •        .         •       55 

Kavirondo  Beauty 67 

Kavirondo  Warriors 67 

Wakikuyu 79 

KiKUYU  Woman 79 

General  View   of   Entebbe,  Looking   North- 
east   91 

Lumbwa  Girls 105 

The  Kabaka,  Daudi  Chwa  (King),  Uganda  .  105 
Review  of  Sihks  at  Entebbe  .  .  .  .119 
Bakedi  —  Uganda  Protectorate        .        .        .133 

Bari  Tribe— Gondokoro 133 

Uganda  Women  and  Children  .        .        .        .147 

XV 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGB 


Native  Hair -dressing  in  East  Africa    .        .147 

Lake  Ferry  at  Entebbe 159 

The  Sesse  Islands 159 

"Lender"  Women  (Nubian)  .  .  .  .173 
MuHUMA  Cowman,  Uganda  Type  .  .  .185 
Natives  Catching  and  Eating  White  Ants  — 

Uganda 185 

RiPON  Falls,  Usoga  Side 197 

Beating  Out  Bark  Cloth  in  Uganda  .  -197 
Nubian  Women    Pounding   Rice  in    Mortars 

Made  of  Tree  Trunks  ....     205 

The    Residence    of      the    Commissioner    at 

Entebbe  .        .        • 213 

Governor's  Palace  at  Dar  Es  Salaam  .        .213 

Scene  in  Zanzibar 225 

A  Street  in  Zanzibar 225 

A  Mother  and  Child 237 

SwAHiLi  Girl 237 

Typical  View  of  the  High  Veldt     .        .        .     249 
Dust     Storm     in     Commissioner     Street,    Jo- 
hannesburg       259 

Typical  Mine  Buildings  at  Johannesburg      .    265 

Street  in  Zanzibar 277 

Native  Market  in  Zanzibar  (Through  Which 

Now  Runs  the  Train) 277 

Native  Hut  in  Zanzibar 291 

Zanzibar  Fish  Market 291 

Train  for  Bu  Bu  Bu,  Starting  in   Front  of 

Sultan's  Palace  at  Zanzibar  .  .  .  303 
African  River  Steamer -landing  .  .  .317 
Exchange  Building  at  Johannesburg       .        .     343 


xvi 


Some  African  Highways 


CHAPTER    I 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH    OF    EAST   AFRICA   AND 
UGANDA 

QAID  Solomon  of  old:  "  There  is  no  remem- 
brance of  former  things ;  neither  shall  there 
be  any  remembrance  of  things  that  are  to 
come  with  those  that  shall  come  after."  So, 
from  the  time  of  Homer  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  last  century,  the  sources  of  the  Nile 
have  been  discovered  and  lost,  and  rediscov- 
ered and  lost  again  with  each  new  era  of  en- 
lightenment. Speke,  in  1858,  had  the  same 
thrill  on  his  first  sight  of  the  great  lake,  which 
now  is  known  as  Victoria  Nyanza,  as  the  original 
discoverer  who  wrote  his  book,  probably  on 
papyrus,  either  in  Greek  or  Phoenician.  He, 
that  Greek  or  Phoenician,   together  with  his 

11 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

writings  and  maps,  has  long  since,  with  those 
that  came  after,  treading  unknowing  in  his 
footsteps,  disappeared  in  that  vast  darkness 
which  envelops  and  absorbs  all  human  en- 
deavor. Mr.  Stanley,  however,  in  his  invalu- 
able work,  "  In  Darkest  Africa,"  gives  a  curious 
and  not-eworthy  collection  of  maps  from  ancient 
times  down  to  his  own  in  which  the  Nile  is 
traced  to  its  sources,  all  including  various  dis- 
tortions of  the  great  interior  African  lakes, 
and  of  those  contributing  factors,  the  classic 
motmtains  of  the  moon. 

Speke's  first  view  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza 
was  from  the  southern  shores.  He  was  then 
exploring  in  a  subordinate  capacity,  having 
left  his  superior,  Richard  Burton,  ill  of  a  va- 
riety of  African  maladies,  many  days'  journey 
to  the  south.  The  story  of  Speke's  subsequent 
return  to  England,  and  of  his  claiming  and 
wearing  the  laurels  for  his  discovery  is  too  well 
known  to  bear  repetition  here.  Four  years 
later  he  came  back  with  Grant,  and  by  a  devious 
approach,  via  the  south  end  and  west  shore 
of  the  lake,  made  his  way  to  the  capital  of 

12 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

Uganda,  Mengo  (now  generally  known  as 
Kampala).  The  then  King  of  Uganda,  M'tesa, 
sent  him  to  the  north  outlet  of  the  lake,  where 
these  two  explorers  were  the  first  modern  white 
men  to  see  that  great  initial  swirl  of  the  Nile 
over  the  lip  of  the  lake,  as  the  famous  river 
starts  on  its  way  northward.  They  named 
this  drop  the  Falls  of  Ripon,  though  it  can 
hardly  be  considered  as  more  than  a  cataract. 
The  native  name  for  the  river  was  Kivira, 
while  the  lake  was  called  Ukerewe. 

It  was  a  lucky  leap  in  the  dark  on  the  part  of 
Speke  and  Grant  to  say  that  this  was  the  real 
beginning  of  the  Nile.  They  did  little  to  verify 
their  theory,  but  subsequent  discoveries  proved 
them  right,  and  so  they  get  the  credit  for  it. 
They,  and  all  those  early  explorers,  however, 
deserve  much  praise  and  respect  for  the  dangers, 
trials,  and  discomforts  which  they  met  and 
overcame.  The  footsteps  which  they  made 
with  such  pains  and  labor  in  the  jungles  and 
forests,  and  on  the  plains  of  tropical  Africa, 
have  since  been  trodden  down  and  out  by  so 
many  other  adventurous  explorers  of  diverse 

IS 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

nationalities  that  the  road  has  become  a  broad 
highway,  with  well  equipped  trains  and  steam- 
ers to  convey  an  ever-increasing  throng  to 
those  once  forbidding  and  inaccessible  regions. 

Because  we  have  not  a  continuous  record  in 
European  languages  of  the  vast  territory  of 
East  and  Central  Africa  does  not  mean  that 
it  has  not  had  a  progressing  history.  It  is  far 
older  in  obtainable  chronicle  than  either  of 
the  American  continents.  The  navigators 
of  ancient  times  came  in  their  galleys  down 
this  East  Coast.  Solomon's  mines  are  by 
common  consent  placed  in  this  region.  While 
his  illustrious  guest,  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  is 
supposed  by  many  to  have  come  from  this 
same  part  of  the  world  to  do  him  homage. 

For  centuries  the  Arabs  have  controlled 
the  fortunes  and  trade  of  this  enormously 
rich  territory.  The  influences  of  their  language, 
customs,  and  traditions  are  to-day  to  be  ob- 
served on  every  hand  in  studying  the  natives 
of  East  Africa. 

The  principal  tribe  there  are  the  Swahilis,  de- 
scendants   of   Arabs,    Persians    and   Africans. 

U 


-  -^1 

•    ■,•'*'■'.•■                                  1    ,            _. 

■  -             III    ||^'    'HiS^T^  ^sb 

■     ■  -^-^Jl.                          -^^aam 

■i^    vj     >-i?    •'•■  ^^^--^-^^ . -^ 

-.^  '-'X.-^/. -^^^V/  -  I 

"■""'v--- '  ^^  ■-.•   M> 

Namirembe  Cathedral  (Protestant)  Uganda 


Ripon  Falls,  from  Usoga  Side 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

The  very  name  is  from  the  Arab  "  sahel," 
meaning  "  of  the  coast."  The  language  of 
these  SwahiHs  is  the  common  intermediary- 
speech  of  the  natives  from  Zanzibar  to  Uganda 
—  though  each  tribe  has  its  own  tongue.  The 
Arabs  have  done  much  to  plant  and  foster 
Mohammedanism  in  North  and  Central  Africa. 
According  to  reports  from  the  Christian  mis- 
sions the  converts  to  Christianity  far  outnumber 
the  converts  to  Mohammedanism.  I  have 
not  seen  the  reports  from  the  Arabs.  If  a  tree 
is  to  be  judged  by  its  fruit,  however,  I  should 
say  that  the  latter  form  of  religion  evolves 
as  decent  an  African  as  the  former.  To  a 
certain  limited  degree  the  teachings  of  Mahomet 
are  better  adapted  to  that  extremely  elementary 
creature,  the  African  native,  than  is  our  more 
abstract  and  ethical  faith.  A  religion  of  many 
forms  and  ceremonies,  which  also  includes 
much  ablution,  and  a  total  abstaining  from 
alcohoHc  beverages,  and  which  permits  a 
plurality  of  wives,  fits  excellently  certain  condi- 
tions of  a  tropical  climate  and  a  savage  people. 
The  Christian  missions,  Catholic  and  Protes- 
17 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

tant,  have,  however,  done  a  great  work  in  East 
and  Central  Africa.  Their  converts  number 
two  hundred  thousand,  and  at  their  headquar- 
ters in  Kampala  churches,  schools,  and  various 
industries  testify  to  their  excellent  work.  The 
principal  Protestant  organization  is  The  Church 
Missionary  Society,  which  has  been  for 
many  years  under  the  administration  of 
Bishop  Tucker;  while  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  represented  by  the  White  Fathers 
(a  French  mission  with  headquarters  in  Al- 
giers), and  the  Mill  Hill  Fathers,  an  offshoot 
of  an  organization  of  the  same  name  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  introduction  of  Christian  missionaries 
into  this  part  of  Africa  is  connected  with  a  curi- 
ous tragedy  worth  recording  here.  When,  in 
1875,  Stanley  reached  Uganda,  he  found  M'tesa, 
the  king,  pondering  the  question  of  a  desirable 
religion  for  his  people.  Stanley's  presentment 
of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  impressed 
M'tesa  profoundly.  Just  at  that  moment  a 
messenger  from  General  Gordon,  who  had 
been  sent  to  investigate  Uganda  to  see  whether 

18 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

it  was  a  desirable  territory  to  annex,  appeared 
at  Mengo.  This  was  a  Belgian,  one  Linant  de 
Bellefonds.  By  him  Stanley  sent  his  famous 
letter  to  the  Daily  Telegraph  urging  English 
missionaries  to  start  on  the  conversion  of 
Uganda.  The  unfortunate  Belgian  was  set 
upon  by  the  Bari  tribe  on  his  return  journey 
to  Khartoum  and  was  killed  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Gondokoro.  His  body  was  found  by 
a  pimitive  expedition  sent  out  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  on  removing  the  long  knee-boots 
he  wore  at  the  time  of  his  death  Stanley's 
letter  was  foimd  where  de  Bellefonds  had 
tucked  it  —  probably  at  the  moment  of  attack. 
The  blood-stained  missive  was  forv\^arded  to 
its  destination  with  an  explanation  of  its 
adventures  and  delays,  and  its  publication 
brought  immediate  answer.  In  less  than  a 
year  the  Anglican  missionaries  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  had  started  in  two  divisions 

—  one  via  the  Nile  and  one  via  the  East  Coast 

—  for  Uganda. 

In  1879  the  White  Fathers  also  established 
themselves  in  that  country,  and  have  now  a 

19 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

great  and  flourishing  institution  which  has 
branches  all  over  Uganda. 

To  return  to  the  history  of  this  region: 
when  in  1480  Vasco  da  Gama  circumnavigated 
Africa  he  sailed  into  the  harbor  of  Mombasa, 
then  known  as  Mvita,  an  Arab  and  African 
settlement.  Narrowly  escaping  disaster  on 
the  cruel  reefs  that  menace  the  entrance  of 
this  harbor,  he  found  on  drifting  into  the  port, 
a  charming  inland  shelter  where,  as  they  still 
do  to-day,  tranquil  waters  lapped  white  coral 
sands  shaded  by  groves  of  rustling  palms. 
Doubtless  before  this  Mombasa,  or  Mvita,  had 
seen  much  bloodshed  and  strife.  Certainly 
after  this  the  town  did. 

In  1500  the  Portuguese  returned  and  took 
it  by  storm.  It  was  retaken  later  by  the  Arabs 
and  changed  hands  in  violence  fifteen  times 
down  to  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Its  position  and  harbors  made  it  the  most 
important  port  after  Zanzibar  on  the  whole 
East  Coast. 

In  1827  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar.     From   that   time  its   prestige   and 

20 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

importance  diminished  until  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  when  a  new,  strong  lease  of  life 
was  given  to  it  by  making  it  the  coast  terminus 
of  the  wonderful  Uganda  Railway. 

The  old  Portuguese  fort,  built  in  1594,  and 
restored  in  1635,  is  one  of  the  principal  land- 
marks of  the  town,  and  after  its  centuries  of 
many  strife  is  now  not  unfitly  used  by  the 
English  as  a  prison.  On  its  turreted  battle- 
ments turbaned  Sihks  from  India  do  sentinel 
duty  to-day,  and  their  chief  occupation  seems 
to  be  to  watch  the  tennis  played  daily  by  the 
British  residents  on  the  glaring  clay  courts 
imder  those  frowning,  windowless  walls. 

The  town  is  situated  on  an  island  three  miles 
long,  one  and  a  half  miles  broad,  whose  greatest 
altitude  is  only  seventy  feet  above  the  en- 
circling sea.  On  the  west  it  is  connected  with 
the  mainland  by  a  causeway.  Its  two  harbors, 
one  to  the  northeast  and  a  deeper  one  to  the 
southwest,  make  it  a  fine  port  for  vessels  of  vary- 
ing size.  The  largest  steamers  unload  in  the 
latter  haven  at  a  settlement  called  Kilindini. 
A  winding,  well-buoyed  channel  leads  to  it. 

21 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

There  is  much  old  Arab  and  Portuguese 
architecture  in  the  narrow  twisting  streets  of 
the  town.  Camoens,  who  spent  some  time 
here  before  going  to  India  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  sings  of  its  ''  noble  edifices  fairly- 
planned  on  the  seaboard."  It  exports  from 
the  neighboring  mainland  sugar  cane,  tobacco, 
hides,  rubber,  sesame,  copra,  chilis,  and  other 
tropical  products.  It  is  the  chief  entrance 
to  the  vast  territory  known  as  British  East 
Africa. 

From  the  "  Handbook  of  British  East  Africa," 
published  in  1892  by  the  Intelligence  Division 
of  the  English  War  Office,  I  will  endeavor  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  boundaries  of  this  territory, 
also  a  slight  suggestion  as  to  its  configuration 
and  its  inhabitants.  Since  the  publication 
of  this  handbook  Uganda  has  been  separated 
from  the  administration  of  British  East  Africa 
and  has  been  given  a  commissioner  (or  gov- 
ernor) and  a  judiciary  of  its  own.  But  this  is 
merely  an  internal  difference.  It  does  not 
affect  the  outlines  of  the  English  holdings 
in  Central  and  East  Africa.     These  possessions 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

include  the  islands  of  Zanzibar  and  Pemba  and 
on  the  mainland  a  stretch  of  four  hundred 
miles  of  coast  between  the  rivers  Juba  on  the 
north,  and  Umba  on  the  south.  With  this 
coast,  as  the  basic  line,  the  territory  spreads 
out  to  the  northwest,  including  900  miles  on 
the  equator,  an  east  and  west  measurement 
of  course;  while  its  greatest  breadth  north 
and  south  is  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
on  the  39th  meridian.  Its  area  is  seven  hundred 
thousand  square  miles.  On  the  north  the 
parallel  of  6°  north  and  the  river  Juba,  from 
its  intersection  by  that  parallel  to  the  sea, 
separate  it  from  Italian  Africa.  On  the  south 
it  is  divided  from  German  East  Africa  by  a 
line  drawn  along  the  parallel  of  1°  south  lati- 
tude from  Congo  Free  State  to  the  east  coast 
of  Victoria  Nyanza  and  thence  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Umba  on  the  coast.  This  line  is  diverted 
to  give  Great  Britain  the  Mfumbiro  Mountain 
on  the  west  and  to  Germany  Moimt  Kiliman- 
jaro on  the  east.  The  western  boundary  is 
limited  by  the  Congo  Free  State,  north  of  which 
it  merges  into  the  region  above  the  Nile  basin 

123 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

formerly  part  of  the  dominions  of  Egypt,  now 
known  as  the  Soudan.  This  part  eastward 
to  Victoria  Nyanza  includes  the  Protectorate 
of  Uganda,  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  some  (gen- 
erally English  officials  in  the  Soudan)  that 
Uganda  should  be  included  in  the  Soudan  gov- 
ernment. Various  authorities,  among  whom  is 
Sir  Harry  Johnston,  think  that  one  adminis- 
tration should  be  made  of  Uganda  and  British 
East  Africa.  Uganda  officials  do  not  look 
favorably  on  either  amalgamation.  Certain 
it  is  that  it  is  likely  to  be  only  a  short  time 
before  the  northern  outlet  of  Uganda  via  the 
Nile  region  will  be  more  travelled  and  more 
serviceable  to  this  potentially  rich  country 
than  its  present  eastern  outlet. 

A  step  in  this  direction  was  the  opening 
in  1906  of  Port  Sudan  on  the  Red  Sea.  While 
the  Cape  to  Cairo  Railway  is  daily  pushing  up 
from  the  south  and  down  from  the  north,  and 
will  before  long  meet  in  Uganda,  completing 
this  gigantic  and  wonderfully  interesting 
achievement. 

But  "  this  is  another  story."  Great  Britain 
S4 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

has,  with  her  usual  acumen,  got  the  choice 
morsels  in  the  subdivision  of  Africa  among 
the  European  powers.  British  East  Africa  is 
a  plateau  rising  gradually  from  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Its  ordinary  level  in  the  interior 
varies  from  three  thousand  to  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea.  A  curious  feature  of  this 
vast  plateau  is  the  existence  of  detached,  quite 
unrelated  mountain  masses  rising  from  it. 
**  These  are  of  enormous  dimension,  both  in 
height  and  area,"  says  the  Handbook. 

Mounts  Kenia  and  Kilimanjaro  He  between 
the  lake  and  the  sea  and  both  rise  eighteen 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  They  are  two 
hundred  miles  apart  and  in  clear  weather  both 
are  visible  from  the  Uganda  Railway;  Kili- 
manjaro the  first  day  and  Mount  Kenia  the 
second.  The  latter  is  plainly  an  extinct  vol- 
cano, having  the  unmistakable  conformation 
of  the  world's  chimneys. 

West  and  somewhat  north  of  Lake  Victoria 
Ruwenzori,  nearly  twenty  thousand  feet  in 
height,  veils  its  massive  head  for  three  htmdred 
days  a  yeai  in  impenetrable  fogs.     The  effect 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

when  it  does  burst  forth  must,  to  judge  from 
Stanley's  account  of  it,  be  one  of  the  great 
spectacles  of  the  earth.  Its  flanks,  clothed  in 
the  lower  parts  with  dense  tropical  forests, 
rise  gradually  to  stupendous  peaks  and  snow 
fields  of  enormous  sweep,  which  probably 
gained  for  it  the  ancient  and  classical  name  of 
Mountains  of  the  Moon. 

One  himdred  miles  south  rises  the  volcanic 
shape  of  Mfimibiro  to  over  fourteen  thousand 
feet,  and  to  the  north  of  the  lake  Mount  Elgon 
towers  to  a  similar  height. 

Besides  these  detached  mountains,  each  of 
which  rises  like  a  monarch  from  the  African 
plateau,  there  are  mountain  ranges  running 
north  and  south  and  attaining  a  height  of  ten 
thousand  feet. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  geographic 
phenomena  which  individualize  Africa  is  a 
gigantic  gash  in  the  earth's  crust  that  runs 
along  meridian  36°  east  for  some  seven  hundred 
miles  from  latitude  4°  south  to  6°  north.  Where 
the  Uganda  Railway  crosses  this  the  west  lip  is 
known   as  the  Nandi  Escarpment,  and  as  the 

26 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

train  zigzags  swiftly  down  the  face  of  the 
east  Hp,  the  Mau  Escarpment,  the  scene 
in  looking  across  the  "  Rift  Valley,"  as  it 
is  called,  is  one  of  unforgettable  splendor. 
But  my  impression  of  this  effect  comes 
later  in  this  narrative.  The  floor  of  this 
depression  varies  from  six  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea  at  Lake  Elmenteita  to  fifteen  hundred 
feet  at  Lake  Rudolf.  In  it  are  many  "  self- 
contained  "  lakes,  that  is,  not  having  outlet  or 
inlet.  Many  of  them  are  salt.  In  English 
territory  are  Lakes  Elmenteita,  Naivasha,  Na- 
kuro,  and  Baringa,  and  further  north  the  great 
Lakes  Rudolf  and  Stephanie. 

From  the  east  side  of  this  rift  the  rivers 
flow  into  the  Indian  Ocean ;  while  from  the  west 
they  flow  to  Victoria  Nyanza  and  thence,  via 
the  Nile,  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  principal 
of  the  rivers  flowing  east  are  the  Juba,  men- 
tioned before  and  rising  in  the  Abyssinian 
highlands,  the  Tana,  rising  under  Mount  Kenia, 
and  the  Sabaki,  formed  by  the  junction  of  the 
Athi  and  the  Tsavo  Rivers. 

As  the  distance  between  the  west  lip  of  the 

a7 


SOME    AFRICAN    fflGHWAYS 

rift  and  Lake  Victoria  is  not  very  great,  no 
rivers  of  any  notable  size  flow  westward. 
But  the  waters  of  all  the  streams  that  drain 
that  side  eventually  flow  into  the  Nile  and 
thence  to  the  Mediterranean, 

Sir  Harry  Johnston,  in  his  excellent  work, 
''  The  Uganda  Protectorate,"  divides  the  natives 
of  East  and  Central  Africa  into  those  de- 
scended from  the  Bantu  stock  (which  is  the 
chief  origin  for  many  varying  tribes  from  the 
equator  to  the  Cape)  and  the  Nilotic  tribes. 
The  chief  of  the  Nilotic  tribes  in  East  Africa 
are  the  Masai  (a  very  superior  race  living  east 
of  the  lake)  and  the  Kavirondos,  and  many  of 
the  tribes  living  north  and  west  of  Uganda, 
Some  authorities  include  the  Baganda,  or 
inhabitants  of  Uganda.  Aside  from  the  uni- 
formity in  speech,  the  descendants  of  the  Nile 
tribes  are  distinguished  by  a  simplicity  of 
attire  rivalling  that  of  Adam  and  Eve  before 
the  fall.  They  may  don  skins  or  draperies  for 
warmth  or  to  be  dressy,  but  never  for  decency. 
As  the  Baganda  have  always  been  quite  the 
contrary  and  wear  many  and  most  classical 

£8 


'i2L.-i»w»r 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

draperies,  and  are  most  scrupulous  in  regard 
to  decency,  this  makes  a  great  gulf  between 
them  and  their  more  primitive  neighbors,  to 
whom  they  are  apt  to  refer  in  scorn  as  the 
Ukedi  ("  the  naked  ").  Their  speech  and 
features  both  ally  them,  however,  with  the  Nile 
negroes. 

The  Bantu  stock  is  widespread  and  includes 
the  natives  of  West  and  South  Africa  and  many 
of  the  tribes  of  East  and  Central  Africa,  but 
its  offshoots  do  not  seem  to  be  equal,  either 
physically  or  mentally,  to  the  descendants 
of  the  Nile  negroes,  although  they  far  out- 
number them. 

There  is  among  the  natives  in  Uganda  a 
system  of  land  tenure  which  is  carefully  guarded 
by  the  English  authorities.  This  makes  it 
difficult  for  Great  Britain  to  make  big  land 
grants  similar  to  those  which  have  been  made 
in  British  East  Africa  to  such  great  land- 
holders as  the  British  East  Africa  Company, 
or  to  such  individuals  as  Lord  Hindlip,  Lord 
Delamere,  and  others. 

Among  the  principal  tribes  living  between 
31 


SOME    AFRICAN   HIGHWAYS 

the  Indian  Ocean  and  Lake  Victoria  besides 
the  Masai  and  Kavirondo,  are  the  Kikuyu, 
the  Nandis,  the  Wanyenwezi,  the  Suks,  and 
the  Turkanas.  The  generic  term  for  these 
East  African  tribes  is  Wanyika. 

North  and  west  of  the  lake  the  Usoga,  the 
Unyoro,  Ankole,  Toro,  and  Usongora  tribes 
compose  what  is  now  known  as  the  Kingdom 
of  Uganda,  but  was  formerly  a  great  empire 
called  Kittara.  This  also  included  the  Ruanda 
and  Karagwe  people,  who  live  beyond  the 
present  British  frontiers. 

The  little  King  of  Uganda,  Daudi  Chwa,  now 
sits  at  Kampala,  the  native  capital  of  the  state, 
and  holds  nominal  rule  with  a  royal  court, 
soldiers,  and  civil  officials. 

There  is  outward  harmony,  but  that  all  is  not 
as  serene  as  it  appears  is  manifested  by  little 
signs  here  and  there,  while  the  murder  of  Harry 
Gait,  which  is  related  later,  is  a  serious  manifes- 
tation of  an  inward  tendency  to  revolt  to  which 
the  EngHsh  are  somewhat  oblivious.  They  are 
too  apt  to  take  it  for  granted  that  because 
they  estabHsh  and  maintain  a  better  rule  they 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

are  entirely  acceptable  to  an  alien  and  savage 
people.  This  belief  in  their  superiority  has  be- 
fore this  led  the  English  into  trouble,  which, 
with  more  insight  and  foresight,  might  have 
been  avoided  or  minimized.  They  are  coura- 
geous and  just,  but  are  apt  to  be  over-confident. 

The  immediate  predecessors  of  the  present 
king  were  M'tesa,  who  welcomed  the  first  white 
men  in  1858  and  was  always  friendly  to  them, 
and  Mwanga,  who  succeeded  him  and  nearly 
ruined  his  people  by  the  gross  immorality 
he  introduced  and  fostered  among  them,  and 
by  his  bloody  ferocity. 

The  chronicles  of  his  doings  make  grewsome 
reading  in  the  writings  of  the  travellers  of  that 
part  of  Africa  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Among  his  crimes  is  the  his- 
toric murder  of  Bishop  Hannington  in  1886. 

The  great  moment  in  the  history  of  East 
Africa  and  Uganda  came  when  the  Uganda 
Railway,  begun  in  1896,  was  completed  and 
opened  for  traffic  in  1903.  Then  indeed  was 
that  part  of  the  Dark  Continent  flooded  with 
light.    Of  this  as  an  engineering  feat  I  am  not 

33 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

competent  to  write,  except  to  call  attention 
to  that  part  of  the  route  when  the  train  drops 
down  the  eastern  lip  to  the  floor  of  the  great 
Rift  Valley  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of 
time,  which  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  veriest 
tyro  in  railway  engineering.  But  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  tourist  I  can  say  that  it 
is  probably  the  most  wonderful  and  interesting 
railway  journey  in  the  world.  Where  else  can 
you  look  from  the  car  windows  and  see  herds 
of  zebras,  gnus,  and  gazelles  of  many  kinds 
grazing  within  easy  gunshot?  Where  else  can 
you  behold  wild  ostriches  teetering  across  the 
plains,  and  giraffes  aux  naturelles  awkwardly 
scampering  away,  or  hyenas  tearing  undis- 
turbed at  carrion  left  by  some  beast  of  prey? 
Or  where  will  your  train  be  arrested  to  hunt 
a  lion  crouched  in  plain  sight  not  seventy  feet 
away?  Or  from  what  other  car  windows  will 
you  see  a  lioness  and  four  cubs  loping  peace- 
fully by  the  track?  While  in  what  other  rail- 
way journey  will  you  see  so  many  types  of 
savages  as  those  which  line  the  way  from 
Mombasa  to  the  lake,  varying  from  the  lightly 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

clad  coast  tribes  to  the  clay-plastered  Kikuyus 
and  the  stark  naked  Kavirondos? 

A  fuller  account  of  this  wonderful  trip  comes 
in  a  later  chapter,  where  I  leave  generalities  and 
embark  on  the  more  personal  narrative  which 
is  the  main  part  of  this  book.  My  wish  now  is 
to  give  a  slight  idea  of  this  wonderfully  inter- 
esting country,  so  that  some  of  my  compa- 
triots may  have  the  inestimable  delight  of 
visiting  these  regions  before  the  extraordinary 
panorama  has  changed ;  before  the  wild  animals 
have  retired  to  remote  regions ;  before  mission- 
aries have  clad  the  savages  in  custom-made 
trousers  and  petticoats;  before  Cook  is  escort- 
ing chattering  flocks  of  New  England  school- 
ma'ams  to  the  whilom  lairs  and  jungles  of  fierce 
savagery. 

Oh,  you  who  have  health  and  money  and 
energy,  hasten  to  see  the  great  spectacle  before 
the  inevitable  change  comes ! 


35 


CHAPTER    II 

FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

'T^HE  wind  blew  hard  the  night  before  we 
sailed  from  Naples  on  the  Prinzregent 
for  Mombasa  in  British  East  Africa,  in  October, 
1905,  so  we  were  not  unprepared  for  the  choppy 
seas  that  met  us  in  the  bay,  and  broke  against 
the  frowning  cliffs  of  Capri  as  we  ploughed 
along  tmder  the  ruins  of  Villa  Jove.  The  break- 
ing waves  dashed  high  on  the  stem  and  rock- 
bound  coast  of  Calabria  when  we  steamed 
across  the  Gulf  of  Salerno.  They  beat  against 
the  cliffs  of  lovely  Amalfi  and  flung  themselves 
in  great  white  legions  on  the  more  sloping 
shores  of  Minori  and  Maori.  The  wind  trailed 
and  twisted  the  low-lying  clouds  across  the 
face  of  the  mountains  and  sent  many  of  the 
frailer  passengers  on  the  ship  below. 

When  the  shores  quite  disappeared  in  mist 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

we  went  to  our  cabin  to  arrange  ourselves 
and  our  belongings  in  the  contracted  space 
that  was  to  be  our  abode  for  the  next  sixteen 
days.  We  were  fortunate  in  having  one  of  the 
largest  cabins  on  the  ship,  but  even  so  it  takes 
some  ingenuity  to  adjust  two  women,  three 
steamer  trunks,  and  accompanying  hampers 
and  suit-cases  to  an  accommodation  measuring 
perhaps  ten  feet  by  fourteen.  In  a  voyage 
on  tropical  seas  one  needs  more  clothes  than 
in  cooler  climes.  A  frequent  change  of  light 
frocks  for  women  and  linen  or  duck  suits  for 
men  is  necessary  for  comfort.  And  while  it  is 
possible  to  have  laundry  work  done  on  almost 
any  steamer  making  long,  hot  voyages,  it  is 
better  to  be  independent  of  such  work.  There  is 
never  a  hlanchis sense  de  fin  on  these  boats,  and 
clothes  are  hung  to  dry  in  an  interior  dark 
drying  room,  which,  for  some  reason,  seems 
usually  to  drip  with  iron  rust,  as  demonstrated 
by  the  much  spotted  linen  that  emerges  from 
the  process.  Furthermore,  it  is  the  pleasant 
and  comfortable  custom  on  these  ships  sailing 
tropical  seas  to  dress  for  dinner  in  some  frock 

37 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

or  habit  of  a  festive  effect.  Which  means  more 
changes,  more  luggage,  and  more  room  needed. 
We  (which  "  we  "  means  my  mother  and 
myself)  were  taking  down  to  my  sister  in  Central 
Africa  an  Italian  maid,  a  young  girl  from  Capri, 
and  here  let  me  digress  to  say  that  for  the  kind 
of  unexpected  service  required,  for  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  such  a  journey  and  the  inconveniences 
and  trials  of  life  in  those  newly  settled  regions, 
an  Italian  girl,  if  you  can  get  just  the  right  one, 
is  the  best  kind  to  take.  She  is  not  used  to  any 
comfort  or  luxury  in  her  own  country.  She  is, 
as  a  rule,  adaptable,  and  if  she  be  of  that  right 
kind  specified,  she  will  be  amiable,  docile,  strong, 
and  sympathetic.  Nannina  was  all  these  and 
proved  to  be  a  treasure.  Although  she  is  in  a 
far-away  land,  among  a  strange  people,  who  do 
not  speak  her  language,  in  a  settlement  where 
she  is  the  only  white  servant,  she  has  never 
complained  or  been  anything  but  cheerful.  I 
should  say  that  it  might  be  hard  to  find  another 
like  her  had  I  not  had  a  similar  experience  with 
a  maid  whom  I  took  down  to  South  Africa  with 
me  in  1899. 

38 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

Returning  to  the  decks,  we  established  our- 
selves in  our  long  chairs  and  took  a  survey  of  our 
fellow  passengers.  We  found  them  to  be  about 
half  and  half  English  and  German  —  an  im- 
malleable  lot,  each  looking  askance  at  his 
neighbor.  Except  for  Countess  von  Goetzen, 
the  American-bom  wife  of  the  governor  of 
German  East  Africa,  my  mother  and  I  were 
the  only  Americans  on  the  ship. 

The  German  passengers  were  generally  offi- 
cials, who  with  their  families  were  returning 
to  their  posts  in  German  East  Africa.  Among 
the  English  there  was  a  greater  variety  of 
object.  Some  were  officials,  some  were  people 
who  had  taken  up  land  out  there  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  British  East  Africa,  or  had  concessions 
they  were  anxious  to  develop.  Others  were 
after  big  game;  while  still  others  were  officers 
hurrying  to  their  posts  in  the  interior  on  account 
of  an  outbreak  of  the  warlike  Nandis.  As  a 
rule  the  passengers  were  an  interesting  gather- 
ing of  people,  with  the  commercial  element, 
so  pronounced  on  the  African  West  Coast 
route   and    on    the    North   Atlantic  steamers, 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

strongly  absent.  When  the  strangeness  of 
the  first  few  days  wore  off  the  hours  passed 
very  pleasantly,  and  the  evenings,  after  we 
reached  the  warmer  southern  seas,  were  es- 
pecially charming.  Men  and  women  in  evening 
dress  sat  about  in  gay  groups  on  the  decks 
taking  their  after-dinner  coffee,  while  many  of 
the  women,  following  the  English  custom, 
joined  the  men  in  smoking  cigarettes.  In  the 
brilliantly  lighted  saloon,  whose  windows  opened 
on  the  deck,  there  would  be  music,  while,  later 
in  the  evening,  tables,  both  indoors  and  out, 
would  be  set  for  cards  or  chess.  And  each 
night  the  air  grew  warmer  and  softer  and  the 
sea  smoother.     But  this  is  anticipating. 

When  we  first  sailed  from  Naples,  there  was 
great  uncertainty  as  to  when  we  should  get 
through  the  Suez  canal.  The  English  steamer, 
the  Chatham,  carrying  dynamite,  had  been 
sunk  in  the  channel  some  three  weeks  before 
to  prevent  its  cargo  blowing  up  the  whole  canal 
in  a  fire  which  occurred  on  the  steamer.  It 
had  been  partially  dislodged,  allowing  one 
relay  of  ships  to  pass;   but  a  second  attempt 

40 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

to  clear  the  channel  had  been  made  a  few 
days  previous  to  our  sailing  date,  and  the  way 
was  not  yet  open. 

As  we  drew  near  Port  Said  we  noticed  an 
ominous  absence  of  approaching  steamers, 
so  we  were  in  a  measure  prepared  for  the  news 
we  received  there  that  the  canal  was  still  closed. 
The  outer  and  inner  harbors  were  both  filled 
with  ships  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  the 
accumulation  of  ten  days  of  waiting.  When 
we  woke  up  on  the  morning  after  our  arrival 
we  found  ourselves,  nose  out  into  the  stream, 
aligned  with  a  waiting  host.  Next  us  was  a 
Russian  ship,  carrying  back  to  Eastern  Siberia 
the  inhabitants  who  had  been  driven  away  by 
the  war.  The  decks  seemed  crowded  with 
women  and  children,  who  were  evidently  to 
restore  domestic  life  to  that  devastated  region. 

Port  Said  is  much  improved  since  I  was 
there  in  1899,  when  it  seemed  the  jumping-off 
place  for  the  West  and  the  East.  It  has  a  more 
law-abiding  appearance  now.  Its  main  streets 
have  some  decent-looking  hotels,  while  the 
shops,  with  their  ostrich-feather  fans  and  boas, 

41 


SOME    AFRICAN   HIGHWAYS 

Maltese  lace,  Indian  silver  and  ivory,  and 
Chinese  and  Japanese  curios,  are  quite  alluring. 
The  highways  and  byways  are  filled  with  speci- 
mens of  many  of  the  strange  tribes  of  Africa 
and  Asia,  draped  in  all  colors  of  the  rainbow 
and  varying  in  skin  tint  from  the  pale  chocolate 
of  some  inland  Arabs  to  the  luminous  black 
of  the  Nubians. 

Those  of  the  ship's  passengers  who  were  not 
already  so  provided  bought  here  the  indis- 
pensable pith  helmet  with  which  to  fortify 
themselves  against  the  deadly  tropical  stin. 
The  especial  point  to  be  protected  is  the  nape 
of  the  neck,  the  base  of  the  brain.  This  prop- 
erly sheltered,  there  is  little  danger  to  Europeans 
in  the  tropics,  but  there  is  still  room  for  much 
discomfort. 

As  the  canal  was  to  be  opened  a  day  or  so 
later,  and  as  the  ships  carrying  the  mails  were 
allowed  precedence  of  all  others,  we,  being  of 
this  class,  moved  up  the  line,  passing  our  less 
fortunate  neighbors,  and  took  our  place  in  the 
stately  procession  a  few  miles  or  so  outside  of 
Port  Said.    For  a  day  we  lay  with  the  desert  on 

4S 


A  Native  Canoe  —  Uganda 


Fish  Traps,  Victoria  Nyanza 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

either  side  of  us,  though  here  it  does  not  look 
like  the  desert,  as  vast  tracts  of  shallow  water 
menace  the  canal's  banks. 

An  occasional  camel  loped  along  the  road 
that  runs  by  the  canal;  queer  African  cranes 
trailed  across  the  sunset  sky;  and  by  the  time 
a  day  and  a  night  of  silent  waiting  had  passed 
we  were  once  more  on  our  way.  It  was  a  unique 
and  memorable  sight,  the  seventy-five  or  more 
steamers  bearing  the  world's  commerce  gliding 
slowly  down  the  narrow  waterway.  By  day 
as  far  as  one  could  see  in  either  direction  was 
a  line  of  masts,  spars,  and  funnels;  by  night 
to  the  rear  was  a  glittering  trail  of  the  fierce 
bow-lights  with  which  each  ship  illumines  its 
way  down  the  canal. 

About  midway  we  passed  the  wreckage  of 
the  Chatham,  lying  scattered  over  the  adja- 
cent sands,  while  the  skeleton  of  its  steel  hull 
reared  ugly,  torn  sides  in  the  great  hole  in  the 
canal's  banks  made  by  the  explosion.  Visions 
of  distant,  violet-tinted  mountains  hovered 
on  the  eastern  horizon.  Nearer  at  hand  low, 
windowless  mud  huts,  like  ant-hills  of  a  larger 

45 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

growth,  marked  an  Arab  settlement.  Except 
for  a  slight  ripple  of  the  sluggish  waters  against 
the  shelving  sands  of  the  shores,  we  shoiild 
hardly  have  known  that  we  were  moving,  so 
slow  and  silent  was  our  progress. 

We  met  the  north-coming  steamers  in  the 
Bitter  Sea.  I  counted  thirty  ranged  in  a  great 
semicircle.  Another  forty  lay  in  the  Gulf  of 
Suez  next  morning  when  we  hove  to.  Here  our 
canal  tax  of  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars  was 
paid,  and  one  stage  of  our  trip  lay  behind  us. 

The  Red  Sea  in  October  is  undeniably  hot. 
But  the  decks  were  well  shaded  with  canvas  and 
one  could  sit  with  comparative  comfort  on  the 
breezy  side,  where  the  passengers  made  little 
groups,  reading  or  chattering  or  playing  cards. 
At  four  in  the  afternoon  we  usually  adjourned 
for  tea  or  coffee  in  the  dining-room,  and  later 
the  gorgeous  simsets  for  which  the  Red  Sea 
is  famous  flamed  up  on  the  western  sky  in 
palpitating  splendor.  After  dinner  came  those 
charming  evenings  which  I  have  already  men- 
tioned. I  should  like  to  have  looked  at  the 
ship  from  the  soft,  thick  encircling  outer  dark- 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

ness.  It  must  have  made  a  brilliant  picture 
as  it  glided  southward  under  the  glittering 
stars  and  through  the  still  waters  with  its 
brightly  lit  decks  thronged  with  gay  people, 
while  music  floated  out  from  its  upper  saloon, 
mingling  with  weird  native  chants  from  the 
lower  regions  of  the  ship. 

Those  who  at  night  preferred  the  rather 
troubled  slumber  on  the  deck  in  long  chairs  to 
the  soaking  sleep  in  the  cabins  had  the  better 
part.  For,  after  the  lights  were  out  and  the  eyes 
grew  accustomed  to  the  darkness,  a  soft  per- 
meating glow  seemed  to  come  from  the  stars 
and  to  fill  the  night  with  a  faint  glory.  Shad- 
owy, unrecognizable  forms  hovered  about  the 
decks  until  each  passenger  found  his  own  couch, 
when  came  silence,  and  a  refreshing  peace 
seemed  to  rise  from  the  cool  cisterns  of  the 
midnight  air.  Dawn  and  the  deck  swabbers 
drove  us  down-stairs  early. 

Our  next  stop  was  at  Asab,  a  dreary  port 
in  Abyssinia  belonging  to  Italy,  where  we 
collected  a  strange  lot  of  three  hundred  warriors 
from  the  desert,   Nubians,  Somalis,  and  Sou- 

47 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

danese  to  fight  a  native  uprising  in  German  East 
Africa.  A  chattering,  bizarre,  insect-ridden 
batch  they  were!  Their  horrid  Egyptian  flies 
invaded  the  ship,  crawHng  over  ever3rthing 
and  everybody.  They  seemed  to  have  a 
fashion  of  creeping  about  the  eyes  of  men  and 
beasts.  It  took  a  day  of  brisk  sea  breezes 
to  blow  them  away. 

We  spent  four  or  five  hot  and  glaring  hours 
lying  in  the  harbor  at  Asab,  looking  at  its 
dreary,  crumbling,  low  white  buildings,  crouched 
under  a  few  tired-looking  palms  that  only 
accentuated  the  utter  lack  of  verdure,  the 
ghastly  barrenness  of  the  place.  The  delay 
was  caused  by  the  preposterous  port  duties 
the  Italian  authorities  at  Asab  wished  to  charge 
us —  1, 800  lire.  Ours  was  probably  the  only 
ship  of  any  size  which  had  ever  put  in  at  that 
port.  After  waiting  some  time  for  answers  to 
cable  messages  sent  home  for  instructions,  our 
captain  ordered  up  the  anchor  and  we  steamed 
away  without  paying  any  duties  at  all. 

Our  new  passengers,  the  desert  warriors, 
were  very  interesting  to  watch.     There  was  a 

48 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

great  diversity  in  the  gorgeous  colors  of  their 
draperies,  in  their  types  and  customs.  Their 
deck  was  daily  turned  into  shambles  as  their 
native  sheep,  ill-shapen  and  ugly,  were  slaugh- 
tered according  to  the  laws  of  Mahomet.  At 
sunset,  each  on  his  prayer-rug,  these  followers 
of  the  Prophet  turned  toward  Mecca  with  their 
evening  salutations  to  Allah  Ilia  Allah. 

One  evening  they  were  allowed  to  have  a 
dance.  The  rhythm  of  their  repetitious  tom- 
toms, the  monotonous  shuffling  of  their  steps 
to  time  kept  by  hand-clapping,  worked  them 
up  to  a  sort  of  strange  frenzy.  The  music  and 
manner  of  dancing  resembled  to  a  remarkable 
degree  a  dance  of  Crow  Indians  which  I  had 
seen  in  Wyoming  the  preceding  year. 

A  horrible  night  at  Aden,  when,  in  sweltering 
heat,  we  lay  coaling  from  midnight  until  six  in 
the  morning,  left  us  exhausted.  During  the 
process  of  coaling  the  ship  all  ports  and  doors 
are  closed.  A  fine  black  dust  falls  over  the 
decks,  while  within  a  stifling  atmosphere  saps 
vitality. 

The  roxmding  of  Capes  Guardafui  and  Ras 
49 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

Hafun  —  the  two  easternmost  points  of  Africa 
—  is  a  very  difficult  bit  of  seamanship.  There 
is  no  Hghthouse  on  any  point  of  land;  the 
shore  is  wild,  rocky  and  inhabited  by  fierce 
savages;  and  the  currents  set  strongly  toward 
the  land  in  many  places,  while  the  island  of 
Abd  al  Kuri  forbids  a  wide  berth  being  given 
to  these  promontories.  Every  year  more  than 
one  fine  ship  goes  ashore  to  be  sacked  by  the 
natives.  Until  lately  short  shrift  was  accorded 
to  the  survivors  of  the  wrecks,  but  now  the 
English  government  offers  a  money  bonus 
for  every  life  saved,  and  gives  the  ship  and  its 
cargo  to  the  tribes.  We  passed  not  far  from 
the  wreck  of  a  fine  six  thousand  ton  ship  from 
China,  belonging  to  a  French  line,  which  had 
been  swept  on  this  cruel  coast  some  three 
months  before.  Her  chart-house  had  been 
carried  intact  off  the  ship  by  the  savages,  and 
was  now  the  home  of  the  chief.  With  our 
glasses  we  could  see  it  gleaming  on  a  knoll. 
A  Russian  gunboat  had  saved  the  passengers 
and  crew,  the  former  arriving  at  Aden  in  their 
night    attire,    everything    being    lost    in    the 

50 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

wreck.  The  Italian  government,  which  has 
control  (nominal)  of  this  part  of  Africa,  cannot 
put  up  a  lighthouse  without  first  building  a 
fort  to  protect  its  operations  and  to  guard  the 
light  after  it  is  built.  A  wild,  forbidding, 
utterly  barren  point  of  land  is  this  easternmost 
cape  of  the  Dark  Continent.  As  one  sails  away 
from  it  and  looks  back  to  it,  the  main  promon- 
tory turns  into  a  massive  and  splendid  lion's 
head  that  appears  to  be  looking  eastward  and 
brooding  over  the  desolation  of  that  particular 
comer  of  the  earth. 

The  tail  end  of  the  monsoon,  the  great 
southerly  trade- wind  of  the  Indian  Ocean, 
molested  the  calm  of  our  last  days  before 
arriving  at  Mombasa;  but  only  a  day  late  we 
reached  this  port.  It  is,  as  recounted  in  my 
introductory  chapter,  an  old  Portuguese  settle- 
ment, a  relic  of  the  era  of  Portugal's  greatness 
as  a  sea  power.  It  lies  on  a  low  island  connected 
with  the  mainland  by  a  long  causeway.  The 
harbor  by  the  town  being  too  shallow  for  our 
large  ship,  we  glided  by  a  well-buoyed  channel 
around  to  the  inner  side  of  the  island  to  Kilin- 

51 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

dini.  As  we  entered  this  channel,  to  the  right 
lay  Mombasa  with  its  low  bungalows  buried 
in  foliage,  the  old  Portuguese  fort  being  a 
conspicuous  landmark.  To  the  left  the  waves 
broke  in  vast  white  semicircles  on  the  coral 
reefs,  while  the  adjoining  point  of  land  with 
its  dense  forest  of  palms  presented  a  most 
tropical  appearance.  Robinson  Crusoe  might 
at  any  moment  have  come  out  of  the  jimgle, 
and  signalled  us. 

Being  but  a  few  miles  off  the  equator,  Mom- 
basa does  not  invite  to  physical  exertion, 
neither  does  the  climate  encourage  horses,  so 
the  question  of  intramural  transportation  is 
solved  by  a  system  of  hand-run  trams,  called 
trolleys.  Narrow  tracks  lead  from  every- 
body ' s  front  door  through  every  street .  On  these 
are  nm  light  little  cars,  consisting  of  two  seats 
(back  to  back) ,  with  a  sheltering  hood.  Two  na- 
tive boys  push  these  from  behind  at  a  swift  rate. 
In  front  is  a  foot-brake  that  can  be  operated 
by  the  person  sitting  on  the  left,  in  case  of  too 
great  speed  or  danger  of  collision.  At  every 
corner  or  intersection  are  switches,  so  that  one 

52 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

can  go  in  any  direction.  The  system  is  most 
complete  and  is  eminently  suited  to  conditions 
in  Mombasa.  Gharries  or  rickshaws  supple- 
ment these,  while  one  or  two  of  the  Hindoo 
merchants,  who  batten  on  East  Africa,  have 
carriages  and  horses. 

A  clamoring  horde  of  African  porters  bore 
us  and  our  luggage  in  long  boats  from  the  ship 
to  the  shore,  where  we  clambered  up  a  low, 
spongy  bank  and  went  to  the  customs  office,  a 
corrugated  iron  shed,  not  far  away.  The  air 
reeked  with  that  unmistakable  smell  of  Africa, 
which  is  not  all  African  htimanity,  but  includes 
in  some  strange  way  the  smell  of  the  earth,  the 
strong  perfume  of  tropical  flowers,  the  scent 
of  sun  shining  hot  on  iron,  of  stones  reluctantly 
exuding  moisture  at  the  same  solar  bidding. 
Once  in  the  nostrils  it  never  leaves  you  while 
you  are  on  the  Dark  Continent. 

Kindness  and  courtesy  met  us  from  the  mo- 
ment we  landed.  All  further  care  seemed 
taken  from  us.  An  official  of  the  Uganda 
Railway  took  us  in  his  own  trolleys  the  twenty 
minutes'  trip  to  Mombasa.    Mangoes,  baobobs, 

53 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

and  mimosa-trees  shaded  the  way.  Hibiscus 
and  other  brilliant  blossoms  glared  at  us  from 
the  shrubbery.  Frangipani  —  which  imtil  now 
I  thought  was  merely  a  name  for  a  French 
perfume  —  scented  the  air  from  waxen  blos- 
soms, and  everywhere  was  the  softly  chattering, 
brilliantly  clad  African  race. 

We  were  housed  in  a  hotel  of  Africo- Portu- 
guese architecture,  where  every  step  shook  the 
whole  structure.  Each  room  opened  by  a 
high  overhead  grating  into  all  the  other  con- 
tiguous apartments,  an  arrangement  excellent 
for  airiness  but  fatal  to  even  the  most  primitive 
privacy.  The  bedchambers  were  furnished 
with  the  barest  necessities,  nor  did  the  bed- 
covers encourage  the  hope  that  we  were  the 
first  to  woo  slimiber  on  those  rocky  couches; 
while  their  hard  pillows  would  have  made 
Jacob's  blush  for  its  fame. 

Promptly  at  a  few  minutes  after  six  the  pro- 
found, terrifying  African  night  descended  on 
the  land,  and  the  unfamiliar  stars  came  out. 
Through  this  blackness  we  trundled  at  eight 
on  a  nmibling  trolley  to  a  real  dinner  party. 

54 


^■:":;^^^^as 


O 


FROM    NAPLES    TO    MOMBASA 

Wherever  the  English  go  they  take  the  forms 
of  Hfe  with  them,  so  we  found  ourselves  in  a 
small  gathering  of  well  bred,  well  dressed 
people  seated  at  a  pretty  table  where  flowers 
and  shaded  lights  accompanied  an  excellent 
and  most  correctly  ordered  feast.  Except  for 
the  barefooted,  white-gowned  and  white- 
capped  blacks,  who  glided  noiselessly  about,  the 
occasion  might  have  been  at  one  of  the  centres 
of  civilization.  But  the  talk  was  of  matters 
African ;  of  the  great  loss  in  the  recent  death 
of  the  late  commissioner,  Sir  Donald  Stewart; 
of  the  murder  of  Mr.  Gait  by  natives  in  Uganda; 
of  the  killing  of  another  Englishman  by  an 
elephant,  and  the  mangling  of  a  third  by  a  lion. 
By  these  tokens  we  knew  we  were  in  the  Dark 
Continent.  Also  by  a  certain  calm  acceptance 
of  fate.  Those  who  have  lived  there  some  time 
get  too  used  to  the  attacks  of  savage  tribes 
and  animals  and  strange  African  diseases  to 
do  more  than  comment  in  passing  on  the  ill 
fortune  of  others.  One  must  come  to  Africa 
to  realize  the  blessing  of  the  sense  of  personal 
security  we  enjoy  in  our  occidental  civilization. 

57 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

nr^HE  savage  racial  struggles  which  have 
■■•  drenched  Mombasa  in  blood  date  back 
to  ancient  times.  As  far  away  as  Greek  and 
Roman  days  the  Phoenician  mariners  brought 
home  reports  of  East  Africa  and  its  tropical 
wealth  and  its  perils.  Since  which  time,  as 
related  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  Arabs  and 
other  western  Asiatics  have  poured  in,  to  be 
followed  and  fought  by  the  Portuguese.  In 
all  of  which  sanguinary  revels  the  native 
Africans  have  joined  with  fierce  glee. 

This  continued  till  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  —  in  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  that  the 
"  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth  "  —  the  English 
firmly  estabHshed  their  very  excellent  rule  in  the 
most  desirable  strip  of  East  Africa,  extending 
their  influence  inland  and  northward,  so  that 

58 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

it  finally  met  their  Egyptian  operations  in 
the  Soudan,  thus  giving  them  entire  control 
of  the  most  famous  river  in  the  world  —  the 
Nile.  This  has  not  been  accomplished  without 
a  tremendous  outpouring  of  England's  best 
material.  Wherever  you  may  penetrate,  even 
to  the  uttermost  confines  of  her  sphere  of  influ- 
ence, you  will  find  men  of  high  moral  calibre, 
good  education,  antecedents  and  family,  cheer- 
fully accepting  the  most  primitive  conditions 
of  life,  and  pay,  that  to  an  American  would 
seem  anything  but  exhilarating. 

Mombasa  —  hasn't  the  very  name  a  distinct- 
ively African  flavor?  —  lying  as  it  does  on  the 
low  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  only  a  Httle 
south  of  the  equator,  gives  the  traveller  a 
peculiariy  vivid  impression  of  the  tropics  in 
Africa.  Colors,  sounds,  smells,  all  are  intense 
and  exciting.  The  tempered  sunshine  of  north- 
ern latitudes  is  unknown  here.  Mangoes  and 
other  tropical  trees  cast  dark  splashes  of  shade 
in  the  fierce  glare  of  the  day. 

Most  of  the  dwellings  of  the  Europeans  are 
of  the  Indian  bimgalow  style,  low,  spreading 

69 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

roofs,  airy,  encircling  verandas,  and  a  general 
effect  of  cool  shade.  The  commissioner's  resi- 
dence, known  as  Government  House,  is,  how- 
ever, a  unique  and  most  effective  bit  of  archi- 
tecture. The  lower  part  is  of  gleaming  white 
plaster,  with  a  broad  veranda  whose  snowy- 
pillars  support  the  overhanging  upper  story, 
which  is  of  wood  stained  in  very  beautiful 
and  harmonious  shades  of  green.  It  is  situated 
on  a  flowery  point  overlooking  the  Indian 
Ocean,  where  it  has  the  benefit  of  every  wind 
that  blows.  The  death  in  October,  1905,  of 
the  commissioner  (or  governor)  of  British  East 
Africa,  Sir  Donald  Stewart,  was  a  great  blow 
to  every  one  in  that  part  of  the  world,  and 
when  we  visited  it  a  few  weeks  later  the  fine 
residence  already  had  an  untenanted  look,  as 
the  turbaned  Indian  sentry  paced  softly  up 
and  down,  and  the  flowers  blazed  in  the  quiet 
garden. 

The  older,  narrower  streets  of  Mombasa  have 
kept  their  mediaeval,  Portuguese  look.  Their 
queer,  irregular,  closely  built,  white,  stuccoed 
houses  do  not  seem  to  have  felt  the  touch  of  the 

60 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

twentieth  century,  except  in  an  added  decay; 
while  the  hordes  of  African  and  Indian  races 
that  swarm  about  in  gaudy  draperies  are 
probably  exactly  like  the  hordes  that  for  cen- 
turies have  chattered  and  pattered  in  gay  and 
odoriferous  crowds  in  those  highways  and  by- 
ways. 

We  landed  October  17th,  and,  for  those  of  us 
who  did  not  get  rooms  facing  the  sea,  whence 
came  a  soft  breeze,  that  first  night  was  a  breath- 
less, gasping  stretch  of  wakefulness.  The  dark- 
ness was  filled  with  strange  sounds  from  the 
native  village,  whose  peaked,  grass-thatched 
huts,  huddled  closely  together,  covered  a  large 
tract  in  the  rear  of  the  hotel  and  of  the  main 
street  of  the  town.  At  six  a.  m.  the  sim  came 
up  "  like  thunder;  "  the  noises  of  the  night  con- 
solidated into  the  low-pitched  roar  of  the  day; 
the  hotel  boys,  white-robed,  white-capped, 
barefooted  and  black,  came  to  each  door  with 
the  inevitable  cup  of  tea  or  coffee  with  which 
every  European  in  this  coimtry  begins  the  day, 
and  the  hard  beds  and  stony  pillows  yielded 
up  their  victims. 

61 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

When,  in  the  last  of  December,  1903,  the 
railroad  which  connects  Mombasa  with  Uganda 
and  the  great  interior  region  was  completed, 
there  was  opened  to  the  travelling  public  one 
of  the  most  curious  and  interesting  railway 
journeys  in  the  world.  Before  that  it  was  a 
three  months'  tramp  by  caravan  trip  to  this 
part  of  the  Dark  Continent ;  a  way  heavy  with 
dangers  and  discomforts.  Everything  was 
brought  up  on  the  heads  or  shoulders  of  African 
porters.  This  overland  trip  annihilated  all 
differences  in  intrinsic  values,  making  a  bottle 
of  beer  cost  as  much  as  a  bottle  of  champagne. 
Bulk  and  weight  were  the  only  considerations 
in  fixing  prices.  Now  the  railway  makes  the 
five  hundred  and  eighty-four  miles  to  Victoria 
Nyanza  in  forty-six  hours,  while  a  steamer 
completes  the  remaining  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  miles  in  one  or  two  days,  according 
to  the  weather. 

The  railway  is  a  metre-gauge  road,  the  iron 
ties  being  imbedded  in  red  clay,  which  latter 
sends  up  a  fine,  permeating  dust.  The  road  is 
none  of  the  smoothest,  nor  are  the  car  springs 

6S 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

such  as  to  minimize  the  rough  jolting  of  the 
train.  In  fact,  a  favorite,  though  time-worn, 
jest  out  there  is  the  assertion  that  the  car 
wheels  are  square  instead  of  round. 

The  railway  carriages  are  like  those  in  use 
in  India.  They  are  divided  into  two  length- 
wise compartments  opening  at  the  ends,  and 
separated  from  each  other  by  a  couple  of  tri- 
angular, little  lavatories,  w^here  there  is  an 
abundant  supply  of  water  to  remove  the  red 
dust.  There  are  three  windows  on  each  side 
of  the  compartment,  and  about  a  foot  outside 
of  these  a  boarding  drops  half-way  down  from 
the  roof  to  protect  one  from  the  glare,  the  cin- 
ders and  any  but  a  very  lateral  rain.  Inside 
there  are  shutters  that  can  be  raised  a  little 
over  half-way  up  so  that  one  can  shut  out  the 
night  or  day  and  yet  have  plenty  of  air.  The 
finish  of  the  cars  is  of  the  plainest,  and  each 
traveller  carries  his  own  bedding.  But  two 
people  in  one  of  these  simple  carriages  can 
travel  with  more  comfort  and  privacy  than 
in  one  of  our  over-decorated,  over-upholstered, 
over-heated     Pullman    sleepers  —  always    ex- 

6S 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

cepting  our  compartment  cars.  The  engines 
bum  wood,  which  saves  one  from  the  irritating 
coal  dust  that  annoys  travellers  in  other  lands, 
but,  as  the  cinders  sometimes  blow  in  through 
open  doors  and  bum  holes  in  the  hand  luggage, 
a  watch  has  to  be  kept.  Each  person  carries 
his  own  bedding  and  towels,  also  a  good  supply 
of  food  to  help  out  in  case  of  not  arriving  in 
time  at  one  of  the  dahk  bungalows  where 
meals  are  served.  The  third-class  carriages 
are  built  with  the  bare  wooden  seats  set  across 
the  cars  and  are  generally  crowded  with  a  chat- 
tering throng  of  Indians  and  Africans. 

The  building  of  this  road  was  one  of  the 
heroic  achievements  of  engineering,  the  men 
who  undertook  it  and  carried  it  through 
running  every  kind  of  danger.  Many  white  men 
are  said  to  have  been  killed  by  lions,  while  a 
still  larger  number  of  the  native  workmen 
met  similar  deaths.  All  along  the  way  one 
still  sees  the  arrow-proof  structures,  used  for 
housing  the  workers,  great  windowless,  corru- 
gated iron  shanties  with  protected  roof-holes 
to  let  in  light  and  let  out  smoke.     Together 

64 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

with  the  dangers  from  visible  and  tangible  wild 
animals  and  wilder  tribes  stalked  the  invisible 
and  intangible  danger  from  fever,  which  is  still 
the  constant  menace  in  tropical  Africa. 

The  sun  blazed  down  ferociously  on  the 
railway  station  at  Mombasa  at  the  hour  of  our 
departure,  10.30  a.  m.  There  was  a  seemingly 
inextricable  confusion  attendant  on  the  setting 
out  of  this  w^eekly  train.  Native  porters  rushed 
aimlessly  about,  shrieking,  and  reeking  with 
perspiration.  English  officials,  in  pith  helmets 
and  khaki  suits,  shouted  orders  which  no  one 
seemed  to  carry  out. .  The  corrugated  iron 
buildings  and  cement  platforms  radiated  heat, 
so  that  it  rose  in  vibrating  waves,  beating 
against  our  faces  as  we  leaned  out  of  the  little 
car  windows  to  watch  the  confusion  and  say 
last  words  to  those  of  our  steamer  companions 
who  were  staying  behind.  At  last,  with  a  long, 
shrill  toot,  the  engine  started  and  we  pulled 
out  of  the  clamor  and  the  crowd.  We  trundled 
slowly  across  the  island,  the  whistle  constantly 
screeching  to  shoo  off  the  tracks  the  idly  lounging 
natives  who  seemed  to  regard  the  rails  as  their 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

boulevard.  We  steamed  across  the  causeway 
connecting  the  island  with  the  mainland,  and 
after  travelling  some  distance  through  thick 
groves  of  alternating  palms  and  bananas  we 
began  to  rise  to  the  plateau,  which  at  this  part 
of  East  Africa  comes  near  the  coast.  The 
dense  foliage  and  plantations  dropped  below  us, 
and  gradually  the  beautiful  panorama  of  the 
sea  and  land  spread  out  beneath  us,  delighting 
us  at  every  turn  in  our  ascent  with  stretches 
of  shimmering  blue  waters,  fierce  white  coral 
sands  and  intensely  green  plantations. 

The  air  became  fresher  and  sweeter  as  we 
ascended.  In  a  few  hours  we  entirely  lost  sight 
of  the  coast  and  devoted  ourselves  to  the  new 
and  interesting  country  which  lay  on  either  side 
of  the  track.  After  passing  through  the  dense 
tropical  growth  of  the  lower  levels  we  reached 
a  region  of  thorn-trees,  whose  cruel  spikes  must 
have  made  the  way  terrible  to  the  road  builders. 
Gradually  mounting  we  came  to  the  bare,  rolling 
stretches  of  the  Athi  Plain.  Here  begins  that 
wonderful  spectacle  besides  which  even  the 
finest  modem  menagerie  dwindles  into  a  little 

66 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

side-show.  This  wilderness  to-day  looks  as 
savage  as  when  it  was  first  adventured.  The 
bare,  reddish  yellow  earth,  covered  with  sparse 
grass,  rolls  away  to  low  hills  as  bare,  which  at 
sunrise  and  sunset  glow  with  the  most  exquisite 
opalescent  tints.  At  rare  intervals  a  dry  water- 
course bordered  with  scrub  acacias  would 
break  the  expanse.  Or  a  patch  of  lean  thorn- 
trees,  whose  level  lines  suggested  Japanese  art, 
would  stretch  away  to  the  low  hills  which 
bordered  the  horizon.  When  we  reached  the 
Nandi  and  Mau  plateaux,  however,  the  land- 
scape changed,  and  green  fields  (some  under 
a  rude  kind  of  native  cultivation)  and  dense 
woods  made  a  grateful  change.  The  air  too 
there  was  especially  vigorous,  clear  and  sweet. 
What  especially  marked  the  way,  however, 
was  the  extraordinary  zoological  show.  Large 
tracts  on  both  sides  of  the  road  have  been 
preserved  by  the  strict  laws  with  which  the 
Anglo-Saxon  safeguards  sport.  The  remote- 
ness, inaccessibility  and  lack  of  water  in  vast 
districts  are,  however,  sufficient  protection. 
The  most  hardy  poacher  would  need  a  caravan 

69 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

to   escort   him.      So,    as   they   are   practically 
unmolested,    the    strange    African    antelopes, 
birds  and  wild  beasts  pursue  the  even  tenor 
of  their  way  as  if  the  snorting  trains  were  not. 
From  the  train  we  saw  himdreds  of  zebras 
grazing  near  the  tracks,  while  the  grotesque 
Thomson  gazelles  —  called  Tommies  —  flicked 
their  fimny  bushy  tails  as  they  capered  away. 
The  gnus,  or  wildebeests,  big,  black,  and  hump- 
backed, were  also  numerous,  though  the  harte- 
beest  w^as  most  in  evidence.    An  awkw^ard,  ugly 
creature  he  is,  with  a  shambling,  high-shouldered 
gait  and  a  head  hke  an  elk's.    Of  the  gazelles, 
the  Grant  gazelle  is  the  prettiest,  with  his  black 
and  white  striped  sides,  golden  back,  graceful 
head  and  long  pointed  horns.     Giraffes  are  fre- 
quently to  be  seen,  though  we  did  not  chance 
to  get  a  glimpse  this  time  of  any.     But  wild 
ostriches   amused   us   by   their   awkward   see- 
sawing gait  as  they  ran  from  the  train,  balancing 
themselves  by  their  wings.    We  saw  some  huge 
vultures,  a  few  secretary  birds,  and  many  of 
the  strange  Kavirondo  cranes,  flashing  black 
and  white,  with  a  dash  of  crimson.     Our  best 

70 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

bit  of  luck,  however,  was  on  the  second  day, 
when  we  had  an  excellent  sight  of  a  fine  lioness, 
who,  with  her  four  cubs,  loped  away  across  a 
bare  tract  of  land  not  a  hundred  feet  from 
the  train.  Long,  agile,  dun-colored,  she  gazed 
at  us  over  her  shoulder  with  no  surprise  or 
resentment  as  she  bounded  slowly  into  the 
jungle,  followed  by  her  very  plump  offspring. 
Strange  tribes,  as  wild  as  the  animals,  gazed 
at  us  silently,  or  shouted  at  us  in  unknown 
tongues.  Their  faces  and  bodies  were  gashed 
with  weird  devices,  the  lobes  of  their  ears 
being  an  especial  source  of  artistic  inspiration. 
Some  of  these  lobes  hung  in  long  loops  or 
festoons.  In  others  incredibly  huge  disks  of 
wood  were  set,  or  dozens  of  bead  rings  were 
hung,  beginning  at  the  top  of  the  ear.  Clothing 
was  evidently  much  more  a  matter  of  individual 
taste  than  with  us.  Some  were  closely  draped 
in  gaudily  printed  cottons;  others  wore  the 
scantiest  of  loin-cloths;  while,  when  we  came 
to  the  Kavirondos,  a  tribe  living  near  Victoria 
Nyanza,  we  found  a  people  of  primeval  sim- 
plicity, to  whom  a  string  of  beads  around  waist 

71 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

or  neck  was  clothing  enough  for  men  or  women. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  this  is  one  of  the  most 
moral  of  the  East  African  tribes. 

Their  high-peaked,  grass  huts  were  built 
in  a  stockaded  circle  in  the  middle  of  which 
we  could  see  fires  smouldering.  The  neatly 
planted  fields  about  their  settlements  showed 
them  to  be  a  peacefully  inclined  people,  though, 
like  all  the  other  tribes  that  we  saw,  their 
warriors  carried  spears  and  shields,  or  bows  and 
arrows.  They  were  tall,  well  formed,  with 
amiable  expressions  as  a  rule.  When  these 
East  African  natives  are  cold  they  rub  their 
bodies  with  castor  oil  and  smear  on  this  red 
clay,  which  gives  them  a  look  of  garish  sav- 
agery. Many  from  aesthetic  motives  treat  their 
woolly  heads  in  the  same  way,  with  quite  a 
weird  effect. 

The  temperature  changed  so  entirely  that 
the  first  night  on  the  Athi  Plateau  we  needed 
two  blankets. 

We  were  warned  that  after  this  night  on  the 
plains  we  should  find  ourselves  and  all  our 
possessions  covered  with  a  fine,   red  dust  to 

72 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

such  a  degree  that  our  clothes  at  least  would 
ever  after  have  a  lurid  tinge.  But  by  a  rare 
good  fortune  the  one  rain,  probably,  of  the  year, 
fell  then  and  we  only  found  a  pink  cloud  over 
ourselves  where  we  had  expected  a  crimson 
dye. 

The  largest  interior  town  in  East  Africa  is 
Nairobi,  five  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  above  sea-level,  and  a  very  popular  place, 
though  the  meal  we  got  there  at  the  station 
restaurant  was  not  as  good  as  those  at  either 
Voi  the  day  before  or  at  Nakuru  that  same 
evening.  They  were  all,  however,  much  better 
than  anything  the  traveller  could  get  in  the 
early  days  of  frontier  travel  in  our  own 
country,  well  prepared  by  Indian  cooks  and 
well  served  by  African  boys  under  the  direction 
of  the  Indians,  who  seem  in  this  country  the 
link  between  Europeans  and  natives. 

Sitting  at  one  of  the  two  big  round  tables 
which  accommodated  the  travellers  at  the 
Nairobi  station,  many  East  African  celebrities 
were  pointed  out  to  me.  One  English  peer  was 
there  w^ho  had  just  come  in  from  the  back 

73 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

country  with  his  hair  hanging  to  his  shoulders 
in  unkempt  locks.  Whether  he  wears  it  that 
way  on  Piccadilly  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  a 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  his  out  here. 
Opposite  me  sat  a  German  who  was  one  of  the 
chief  actors  in  the  most  famous  lion  story  of 
East  Africa,  one  which  you  will,  if  you  go 
there,  hear  not  once,  but  one  hundred  times. 
As  it  is  not  so  well  known  in  this  part  of  the 
world,  I  will  venture  to  relate  it.  This  German 
and  two  Englishmen  were  among  those  en- 
gaged in  the  construction  of  the  road  and  were 
to  spend  the  night  in  one  of  the  cars  at  Simba, 
a  station  at  the  eastern  part  of  the  Athi  Plain 
(fateful  name,  for  it  is  the  native  word  for 
"lion"!).  One  of  the  Englishmen  was  to  sit 
on  the  floor  of  the  compartment  on  guard 
while  his  two  comrades  slept,  one  in  the  lower 
and  the  other,  the  German,  in  the  upper  berth. 
In  the  early,  dark  hours,  those  that  precede 
dawn,  the  two  sleepers  were  awakened  by  a 
horrid  struggle  on  the  floor.  Neither  appar- 
ently had  presence  of  mind  to  strike  a  light. 
Perhaps  time  was  lacking.  In  the  snarling 
74 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

tussle  the  door  of  the  compartment  was  closed 
and  the  two  horror-stricken  men  crouching  in 
their  berths  saw  the  outline  of  their  midnight 
intruder  against  the  faint  outer  glimmer  as  it 
leaped  through  the  small  opening  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  door,  dragging  over  its  shoulder 
the  formless,  crushed  body  of  their  companion. 
A  few  scattered,  ragged  remnants  were  all  that 
was  found  next  day  of  the  man  left  on  guard. 
He  had  undoubtedly  fallen  asleep  at  his  post 
and  been  taken  by  surprise  by  a  hungry,  prowl- 
ing lion.  As  a  rule,  it  is  only  old  lions  who 
attack  human  beings.  They  grow  too  de- 
crepit to  be  able  to  catch  the  more  agile  ante- 
lopes who  are  their  la\v"ful  prey,  so,  goaded  by 
a  hunger  w^hich  age  cannot  wither  nor  lessen, 
they  pounce  on  unwary  mortals.  But  this  is 
the  classic  tale  of  East  Africa,  and  the  point 
made  there  is  the  marvel  of  the  leap  by  the 
beast  through  the  small  window,  dragging  a 
man.  I  looked  at  the  German  with  interest. 
In  that  country,  however,  every  man  has  had 
his  thrilling  adventure,  his  narrow  escape. 
An  example  of  a  different  kind  of  adventure 
75 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

was  told  me  by  an  Englishman  who  had  had 
much  experience  among  the  natives.  On  one 
occasion,  having  incurred  the  enmity  of  some 
among  the  tribes  with  whom  he  was  sojourning, 
he  was  much  disturbed  during  the  night  by  a 
horrible  and  suffocating  stench.  He  could  not 
investigate  it  in  the  dark,  but  at  the  break  of 
day  he  did  so,  and  found  laid  across  the  only 
opening  of  his  grass  hut  the  swollen  corpse 
of  a  native  who  had  died  of  smallpox.  A  pleas- 
ing bit  of  African  humor,  which,  however,  did 
not  give  him  the  disease. 

But  to  return  to  the  station  at  Nairobi.  We 
did  not  stay  there  long  enough  to  see  the  town, 
but  from  the  station  we  caught  glimpses  of 
distant  bungalows  and  of  people  riding  and 
driving,  for  Nairobians  are  great  authorities  on 
horse-flesh  and  horse-racing  and  have  their 
annual  races.  At  Nairobi  we  shipped  an  armed 
guard  to  see  us  safely  through  the  Nandi 
country,  this  energetic  tribe  being  at  that 
moment  in  revolt  against  the  English. 

This  African  tribe  fights  with  spears  and  bows 
and  arrows.     The  latter  are  usually  tipped  with 

76 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

a  deadly  poison  of  native  brew,  made  from  the 
gum  of  a  tree  which  I  was  told  was  botanically 
known  as  acocantherus  shimperi.  No  mention 
of  this  is  made  in  Sir  Henry  Johnston's  very 
exhaustive  work,  "  The  Uganda  Protectorate," 
but  as  it  is  described  with  directions  for  anti- 
dotes in  the  official  medical  directions  given 
to  the  English  officers,  its  existence  must  be 
conceded.  This  poison  is  of  a  peculiarly  deadly 
nature,  causing  almost  instantaneous  death. 
An  Englishman  who  knows  East  Africa  well 
described  to  me  the  effect  on  one  of  his  own 
men  who  w^as  struck  by  a  Nandi  arrow.  When 
hit  the  native  ran  forward  twenty  or  thirty 
feet,  then  spun  around  rapidly  several  times,  and 
fell  shuddering  to  the  ground.  The  English- 
man, his  employer,  ran  up  to  him  immediately, 
and  found  the  man  quite  dead,  while  his  body 
was  drenched  in  a  heavy,  soaking  sweat.  In 
the  printed  instructions  issued  to  the  British 
officers  who  went  into  this  war  the  surgeons 
advise  an  instant  injection  of  strychnine,  while 
the  arrow,  when  possible,  must  not  be  cut  out, 
but  pushed  through. 

77 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

As  we  approached  the  edges  of  the  great  Rift 
Valley,  the  scenery  grew  positively  familiar. 
We  might  have  been  travelling  on  the  Lacka- 
wanna Road  in  Southern  New  York  or  Northern 
Pennsylvania,  except  that  no  roads  nor  villages 
broke  the  stretches  of  flowering  fields,  thick 
woods,  or  dotted  the  green  hillsides.  The 
many  patches  of  thorn-trees  looked  like  orchards 
of  gnarled  apple-trees.  We  had  constantly  the 
feeling  that  the  next  turn  would  bring  us  in 
sight  of  a  town  or  a  farm.  Instead,  however, 
we  saw  at  rare  intervals  the  straw  huts  of  the 
natives,  looking  like  congregations  of  haycocks. 
Sometimes  these  huts  or  kraals  were  isolated, 
but  generally  they  were  in  circular  groups, 
surrounded  by  a  high  stockade  of  elephant  grass 
or  of  more  formidable  thorny  brush  of  impene- 
trable nature.  In  the  middle  of  these  circular 
enclosures  fires  would  be  smouldering. 

The  afternoon  of  the  second  day  we  came 
to  the  eastern  lip  of  the  Rift  Valley.  Here 
dense  forests  pressed  close  to  the  tracks,  forests 
said  to  be  favorite  haunts  of  wandering  herds 
of  elephants  and  of  the  formidable  bison,  the 

78 


i.sfeaSB£-»*- 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

creature  who  always  attacks  every  living  thing 
as  soon  as  his  small,  blood-shot  eyes  catch 
sight  of  it. 

The  divide  which  we  crossed  before  coming  to 
the  Rift  is  eight  thousand  feet  above  the  sea ;  and 
Mau,  a  resort,  near  its  summit,  is  much  recom- 
mended to  sufferers  from  tuberculosis.  The 
descent  from  the  Mau  Escarpment  to  the  great 
Rift  Valley  was  wonderful,  both  on  account  of 
scenery  and  from  an  engineering  standpoint. 
The  valley  or  gigantic  gash  runs  north  and 
south,  and  at  this  point  is  very  wide.  The 
afternoon  sun  filled  it  with  a  hazy  glory,  shining 
in  and  out  of  thin  floating  clouds.  There  was  an 
impression  of  vast  distances,  and  great,  wild 
loneliness  as  we  dropped  with  almost  dizzy  speed 
down  nearly  five  thousand  feet  to  the  floor  of 
the  depression.  Shimmering  through  the  splen- 
dor of  mist  and  sunshine,  cone-shaped  moun- 
tains of  volcanic  origin  rose  to  the  west,  chief 
among  which  was  Moimt  Londiani,  while 
toward  the  south,  Hke  a  phantom  lake,  Nai- 
vasha  shone  out  of  the  pale  pink  and  violet 
distances.     Also   Mount   Longonot   reared  its 

81 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

pointed  head  beyond  the  glimmering  lakes. 
It  was  dark  by  the  time  we  crossed  the  Rift 
and  were  climbing  the  west  lip  to  the  Nandi 
Escarpment.  Secure  in  our  military  escort,  we 
slept  the  second  night  through. 

There  was  a  slight  disappointment,  mingled 
with  relief,  when  our  guard  left  us  at  six  o'clock 
just  at  simrise,  and  we  had  had  no  sensation 
beyond  anticipation.  Twenty  or  thirty  Nandis 
had  been  sent  to  their  long  rest  a  few  days 
before  not  far  from  that  very  station,  which 
partly  accoimted  for  our  safety.  As  we  sat 
up,  and  our  morning  cups  of  tea  were  handed 
in  through  the  windows,  we  saw  our  guard 
drawn  up  in  line  on  the  railway  platform. 

The  black  troops  used  against  the  Nandis 
and  in  all  these  little  African  wars  were  a  smart- 
looking  body  of  men,  dressed  in  kliaki  with 
red  fezes  set  jauntily  on  their  heads.  They  are 
good  fighters,  obedient  and  devoted  to  their 
white  officers,  who  are  as  fine  and  plucky  a  set 
of  men  as  can  be  found  in  any  service  in  any 
coimtry. 

It  was  about  nine  o'clock  when  our  train 
82 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

pulled  into  the  station  at  Port  Florence,  but 
we  had  been  up  since  sunrise,  hanging  out  of 
the  car  windows  watching  the  strange  tribes 
through  whose  country  we  were  travelling.  We 
did  indeed  begin  to  feel  that  we  were  in  the 
interior  of  a  savage  country,  or  rather  of  one 
inhabited  by  savages,  for  strange  specimens 
of  naked,  black  humanity  swarmed  along 
the  road  or  clamored  about  the  train  when  we 
stopped.    It  was  all  exciting  and  novel. 

The  first  glimpse  of  Victoria  Nyanza  that 
one  gets  is  of  the  long  arm  it  stretches  into  the 
northeast  and  which  is  called  Kavirondo  Bay. 
After  an  hour  or  so  dawdling  at  the  Port 
Florence  station,  whose  corrugated  iron  sides 
and  roof  and  cement  platform  radiated  heat, 
the  train  puffed  out  and  trundled  along  to  the 
boat-landing.  The  water  looked  as  sparkling 
and  eager  as  Lake  Michigan  on  a  May  morning 
when  we  drew  up  on  the  little  pier  alongside 
the  steamer  that  was  to  take  us  the  last  stage 
of  our  journey.  Next  to  Lake  Superior,  Vic- 
toria Nyanza  (Nyanza  means  lake)  is  the 
largest  fresh- water  lake  in   the  world.       But 

83 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

Lake  Superior  has  none  of  the  hippopotami, 
the  giant  crocodiles,  or  the  still  more  repulsive 
water-pythons  that  infest  this  body  of  water 
and  give  a  sinister  glint  to  the  sparkles.  By 
way  of  reassurance  the  captain  of  our  steamer 
showed  us  photographs  of  huge  crocodiles  he 
had  shot  from  the  end  of  that  very  pier;  also 
of  a  mammoth  water-python  w^hich  had  crawled 
up  a  few  months  ago  on  the  very  deck  where  we 
were  sitting,  where  it  stretched  its  horrid,  slimy 
seventeen  feet  of  coils,  and  interrupted  a 
''  capital  game  of  bridge." 

Pythons,  hippos,  and  crocodiles  did  not  dis- 
turb us  this  trip,  however,  but  left  us  to  miseries 
more  subtle  and  indescribable  in  the  thirty 
hours'  voyage  to  Entebbe,  our  destination. 

Two  very  fine  little  steamers,  the  Winifred  and 
the  Sybil,  which  were  brought  out  in  sections 
from  England,  and  put  together  on  arriving  at 
Port  Florence,  carry  the  main  traffic  on  the  lake. 
One  makes  the  roimd  of  the  lake  (which  takes 
about  ten  days).  The  other  is  devoted  to  the 
service  of  Uganda  and  the  great  interior  region 
stretching  westward   to   the   Congo   territory, 

84 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

and  makes  a  weekly  trip  from  Port  Florence 
to  Entebbe.  Its  arrival  in  the  latter  port  is 
announced  by  a  gun  fired  from  Signal  Hill, 
which  causes  each  heart  to  thrill  with  the  hope 
of  letters  from  the  outer  world.  You,  who  live 
in  the  middle  of  things,  have  no  idea  of  the 
immense  importance  of  news  and  mail  to  these 
remote  outposts,  where  men  and  women  of 
gentle  birth  and  traditions  live  in  exile  — 
cheerful  and  voluntary,  but  exile  nevertheless. 
The  names  of  all  passengers  are  telegraphed 
ahead,  so  that  Entebbeans  can  know  who  is 
coming  and  make  arrangements  accordingly. 
The  hotel  accommodation  is  limited  and  very 
primitive,  so  the  residents  generally  open  their 
houses  to  the  more  noted  visitors,  and  are 
renowned  for  their  hospitality. 

The  two  main  steamers  are  most  comfortably 
fitted  with  electric  lights,  neat  little  cabins 
and  an  excellent  cuisine;  and,  as  they  are  run 
by  the  government,  are  ofiQcered  by  the  fine 
class  of  men  England  chooses  for  her  colonial 
service,  efficient,  presentable,  smart-looking 
men,  who  have  seen  life  in  every  quarter  of  the 

85 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

globe.  These  two  boats  are  supplemented  by 
a  small,  historic  craft,  the  Sir  William  Mac- 
kinnon,  the  first  steamer  on  the  lake.  From 
personal  experience  I  can  testify  to  its  ability 
to  cause  more  exquisite  human  misery  than 
any  other  vessel  of  fifty  tons  in  the  world. 
The  Sybil  had  recently  run  on  a  rock  and  was 
lying  up  for  repairs  when  we  arrived  at  Port 
Florence.  As  the  lake  is  uncharted  the 
accident  is  not  an  imusual  one.  The  imminent 
possibility  of  such  a  catastrophe  adds  not  a 
little  to  the  piquancy  of  travel  on  the  lake. 
But  the  Mackinnon  looked  harmless  that  bright 
November  morning.  So,  tmmindful  of  the 
horrors  that  awaited  us,  we  cheerfully  em- 
barked. There  were  an  imusual  number  of 
passengers,  eighteen  of  us  first-class.  The  only 
cabin  was  small,  containing  but  two  btmks, 
and  was  already  occupied  by  the  largest  cock- 
roaches that  ever  clattered  and  rustled  about 
floors  and  walls.  So  w^e  seven  women  and 
eleven  men  preferred  the  small  deck,  situated 
astern  over  the  screw  —  here  we  had  our  meals, 
and    the    tables    being    removed,    chairs    and 

86 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

mattresses  were  arranged  for  the  night.  These 
were  laid  as  thickly  as  in  an  emergency  hos- 
pital. With  our  heads  in  the  gutter,  or  gun- 
wales, of  the  ship,  and  our  feet  well  mixed  up 
in  the  middle  of  the  deck,  we  spent  what  was 
for  some  of  us  eighteen  of  the  wretchedest 
hours  of  life.  At  five  in  the  morning  some  one 
said  to  me :  "  Can't  you  move  out  of  the  rain?  " 
I  feebly  shook  my  head.  An  equatorial  down- 
pour was  drenching  head  and  shoulders.  About 
three  inches  from  my  face  the  pink  sole  of  an 
African  foot  was  poised  on  the  ship's  raihng, 
while  its  owner  was  letting  down  the  pale  green 
canvas  to  protect  us  somewhat.  (Did  you 
know  that  the  soles  of  the  feet  of  negroes,  as 
well  as  the  palms  of  their  hands,  were  pink? 
I  learned  it  then  for  the  first  time.) 

On  the  other  side  of  the  deck  a  cheerful, 
but  very  seasick  American,  would  sing  out 
between  paroxysms:  "  Home  isn't  a  bit  like 
this!  "  When  morning  came,  for  those  who 
were  not  too  indisposed,  plates  of  unattractive- 
looking  food  were  passed  over  our  prostrate 
forms.    To  move  for  well  or  ill  was  out  of  the 

87 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

question,  as  we  were  packed  in  like  sardines. 
Wind,  rain  and  sun  beat  on  us  alike  and  found 
us  torpid  and  inanimate. 

The  captain,  a  gay,  good-looking  chap  who 
had  spent  the  night  on  the  bridge  to  avoid  the 
sorry  spectacle,  came  and  inspected  us  with  a 
wry  face.  As  there  are  no  lights  on  the  lake 
travel  by  night  is  out  of  the  question,  so  the 
steamers  pull  into  some  shelter  and  wait  till 
dawn. 

It  was  only  when  the  settlement  of  Entebbe 
was  well  in  sight  that  one  melancholy  passenger 
was  able  to  rouse  up,  put  on  a  hat  and  an  all- 
hiding  veil  to  face  the  welcome  awaiting  us. 
The  long,  low  point  of  land  to  which  the  boat 
finally  moored  was  filled  with  people,  natives 
in  fluttering  draperies,  and  the  English  resi- 
dents in  conventional  garb,  the  men  in  pith 
helmets.  One  dear,  familiar  face  smiled  out 
at  us  through  tears,  and  the  trials  of  the  night's 
trip  faded  away  like  the  mists  of  the  morning. 
We  had  reached  the  haven,  the  first  and  most 
important  halt  on  our  journey.  Our  troubles 
were  over.    An  enormously  long  train  of  natives 

88 


THE    UGANDA    RAILROAD 

bore  our  luggage  off  on  their  heads.  We  were 
placed  in  rickshaws  and  had  a  chance  to  look 
about  us  as  we  were  pulled  up  the  steep  hillside 
to  the  main  road  of  Entebbe  —  a  broad,  red 
highway  beaten  to  a  hard  surface  by  the  many 
bare  feet  that  daily  pass  up  and  down  it. 
The  beautiful  landscape  of  lake  and  shore  and 
distant  islands,  with  the  brilliant  gardens 
near  at  hand,  made  an  indelible  impression. 


89 


CHAPTER    IV 

ENTEBBE 

A  STRIP  of  red  African  earth,  a  garden  gay 
with  crimson  hibiscus,  yellow  cassia,  and 
roses  of  all  colors,  a  broad  stretch  of  sloping 
green  fields  dotted  with  strange  trees  of  heavy, 
solid  foliage,  and  then  the  lake,  Victoria  Nyanza, 
intensely  blue,  with  a  distant  line  of  low-lying 
islands,  the  Sesse  Archipelago,  on  the  horizon, 
—  this  was  what  I  saw  when  I  looked  out  of  my 
window  the  first  morning  after  my  arrival. 
Entebbe  lies  almost  at  the  place  where  the 
equator  crosses  the  northwest  comer  of  Lake 
Victoria  in  the  British  Protectorate  of  Uganda, 
a  little  east  of  Central  Africa. 

In  the  foreground  a  swarthy  native  of  the 
proportions  of  Sandow,  clad  lightly  in  a  loin- 
cloth of  coffee-sacking,  was  squatting  on  the 
groimd    and    bending    his    mighty    form    and 

90 


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ENTEBBE 

muscles  to  the  cleansing  of  the  kitchen  dishes 
with  the  moist  red  earth.  Other  boys,  bare- 
footed, and  clad  in  long  white  gowns  (kanzus) 
and  white  caps,  were  flitting  back  and  forth 
between  the  cook-house  and  the  main  residence. 
Of  one  thing  Africa  is  lavish,  and  that  is  human 
labor;  willing,  cheerful,  obedient,  and  not 
unskilful,  the  black  man  makes  tropical  Africa 
possible  to  the  white  man.  It  needs,  to  be 
sure,  about  four  of  these  native  servants  to  do 
what  one  white  servant  would  do  in  any  other 
country.  But  when  you  consider  that  they 
are  taken  from  naked,  free  savagery  and  thrust 
into  clothes,  routine  and  order,  their  service 
becomes  a  thing  to  wonder  at.  Dusturi  is  their 
watchword.  It  means  "  custom,"  and,  when 
once  taught  one  way  of  doing  anything,  no 
power  on  earth  can  make  them  do  it  another 
way.  If  you  would  alter  the  arrangement  of 
the  furniture  in  your  drawing-room,  or  the 
order  of  your  service  at  table,  you  must  get 
a  new  **  boy  "  and  inaugurate  the  change  with 
him.  To  do  otherwise  would  utterly  disrupt 
and  disorganize  the  one  originally  taught.   But 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

in  Entebbe  there  is  no  such  "  domestic  prob- 
lem "  as  haunts  so  many  otherwise  peaceful 
homes  in  America.  There  is  no  awful  presence 
uttering  the  baleful  words,  "  I  tenk  I  go." 
If  a  '*  boy "  is  insubordinate  beyond  home 
correction  he  may  be  sent  up  to  the  adminis- 
tration and  pigared  (given  so  many  lashes). 
There  are  no  "  days  out,"  no  "  evenings  off," 
no  "  keeping  company,"  and  the  housekeepers 
wear  an  air  of  easy  autocracy  unknown  in  the 
land  of  the  free. 

Entebbe  (an  English  arrangement  of  the 
native  word  'Mtebe,  meaning  seat  or  throne) 
is  a  settlement  of  some  seventy  or  eighty  white 
people  and  many  times  that  number  of  natives, 
situated  on  an  elevated,  wooded,  and  very 
beautiful  peninsula,  projecting  into  the  north- 
west comer  of  Lake  Victoria.  It  is  the  English 
capital  of  Uganda,  which,  as  I  have  said  before, 
is  an  English  protectorate.  The  native  king, 
a  youth  called  Daudi  Chwa,  lives  at  Kampala, 
the  native  captial,  twenty-three  miles  away  from 
Entebbe.  He  is  under  the  protection  of  Eng- 
land,   who    administers    his    country,    levies, 


ENTEBBE 

collects,  and  disburses  his  taxes,  and  in  short 
takes  all  the  trouble  of  being  a  ruler  off 
his  shoulders,  leaving  him  the  glory.  His 
father.  King  Mwanga,  headed  an  insurrection 
in  1897  against  the  English,  and,  when  that 
was  suppressed,  was  exiled  to  the  Seychelle 
Islands,  where  he  died  in  1905. 

Until  the  Uganda  Railway  was  opened  up 
in  1903,  life  was  very  simple  in  Entebbe.  The 
houses  were  wattle  and  daub,  with  native 
grass-thatched  roofs.  In  the  terrific  thunder- 
storms which  come  during  the  rainy  season  — 
generally  at  night  —  the  European  dwellers 
in  these  bimgalows  often  got  up  and  dressed, 
so  as  to  be  ready  to  move  swiftly  out  in  case 
of  the  Hghtning  striking  and  setting  fire  to 
their  houses.  Almost  every  one  then  living 
there  had  this  experience  at  least  once.  Then 
came  corrugated  iron  —  that  boon  of  new 
countries.  This,  well-connected  with  the  earth, 
is  an  excellent  protection,  and  to-day  the  low, 
one-story  brick  dwellings,  with  their  over- 
hanging red  roofs,  vine-covered  verandas,  and 
charming   interior  furnishings,  make  homes  as 

95 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

comfortable  and  attractive  as  any  to  be  found 
north  or  south  of  the  equator.  There  is,  how- 
ever, enough  to  remind  one  that  this  is  Africa. 
As  there  is  no  Hme  in  this  part  of  the  world,  a 
homely  substitute  is  sometimes  used :  cow-dimg, 
mixed  with  earth.  This,  whitewashed,  presents 
a  rough  and  not  unpicturesque  surface.  The 
cement  floors  are  generally  carpeted  with  the 
pretty  native  mats  or  with  fine  Persian  rugs  from 
Mombasa  or  Zanzibar.  Beds,  too,  are  often 
of  native  manufacture.  They  are  called  ki- 
tandas  and  are  made  of  strips  of  hairy  hides, 
interlaced  and  lashed  to  low,  rough-hewn 
structures.  On  these  a  mattress  or  two  is 
laid,  and,  in  spite  of  the  equator,  three  blankets 
are  needed,  one  under  you  and  two  over.  (En- 
tebbe lies  some  3,700  feet  above  the  sea,  which 
fact  does  much  to  moderate  the  otherwise 
tropical  temperature.)  The  illustration  in  the 
November,  1905,  Century  of  the  three-thousand- 
years-old  bed  foimd  recently  in  an  Egyptian 
tomb  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  these 
African  kitandas.  To  the  archaeologist  this 
likeness   might  be   more   than   a   coincidence, 

96 


ENTEBBE 

suggesting  as  it  does  a  chain  of  linking  cir- 
cumstance. 

Each  Entebbe  house  is  set  in  a  blooming 
garden,  fenced  in  from  the  broad  red  roads  by 
high  hedges  or  fences  made  of  draecinas,  whose 
strong,  green  stalks  are  lashed  together,  ma- 
king a  most  impervious  barrier.  The  particular 
passion  of  the  residents  here  is  the  cultivation 
of  roses.  Although  they  have  other  flowers, 
such  tropical  blossoms  as  crimson  hibiscus, 
yellow  cassia,  and  waxen,  heavy-scented  frangi- 
pani,  it  is  chiefly  in  roses  of  all  varieties,  sizes 
and  colors  that  their  gardens  abound.  They 
climb  over  the  houses,  they  riot  in  the  well- 
ordered  beds,  and  large  jars  of  the  cut  blossoms 
are  to  be  found  in  every  home.  That  splendid 
vine,  the  bougainvillea,  likewise  grows  here 
to  great  beauty. 

Entebbe  gardens  also  supply  Entebbe  tables 
with  vegetables  —  some  familiar,  others  strange, 
coming  from  India  and  the  East. 

The  scourge  of  gardens  and  of  houses  too, 
however,  in  this  country  is  the  white  ant. 
This    curious,    slimy   creature   breeds   by   the 

97 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

million,  and  burrows  through  bricks  and  plaster, 
eating  everything  that  stands  near  the  walls 
of  a  room,  or  within  reach  in  the  garden, 
destroying  in  a  night  the  carefully  nurtured 
growth  of  months.  The  queen  ant  is  a  most 
loathsome  object,  a  rotmd,  fat  white  worm 
some  four  inches  long,  with  a  head  like  an  ordi- 
nary ant's.  Find  and  do  away  with  her  and 
that  particular  ant-heap  is  rendered  helpless. 
When  they  burrow  into  rooms  the  ants  bring 
with  them  a  red  earth  deposit;  in  this  deposit 
they  sometimes  plant  a  tiny  mushroom,  and  it 
is  not  an  unusual  experience  for  an  East- African 
householder  on  waking  up  in  the  morning  to  find 
a  nice  little  bed  of  mushrooms  in  the  comer  of 
his  room,  which  he  can  gather  and  have  made 
into  an  excellent  stew  for  breakfast.  The  white 
ants  themselves  are  a  dainty,  highly  prized  by 
the  aborigines  here,  and  it  is  a  common  sight 
to  see  a  native  in  front  of  one  of  the  ant-hills, 
which  are  sometimes  eight  feet  high,  picking 
out  the  creatures.  It  is  in  the  mating  season, 
when  they  grow  long,  transparent  wings,  that 
the  ants  are  edible.     The  dusky  connoisseur 

98 


ENTEBBE 

covers  the  ant-hill  with  mats,  burrows  into  it, 
and  then,  as  the  liberated  ants  fly  up,  they  hit 
the  mats,  are  beaten  down,  caught  by  the  wings 
and  are  devoured  by  the  African  bon-viveur. 
If  the  gourmet  wishes  to  put  on  real  style  he 
gets  a  friend  to  beat  a  tom-tom  to  rouse  the 
ants  to  come  out  in  dense  throngs,  when  he 
swiftly  gathers  them.  To  the  uninitiated  it 
is  not  an  appetizing  sight. 

As  my  brother-in-law's  bimgalow,  though 
delightfully  comfortable,  was  limited  in  size, 
he  had  had  built  for  my  use  a  cottage,  with  two 
rooms  and  a  bathroom,  midway  between  his 
house  and  the  kitchen,  where  Nannina,  the 
ItaHan  maid,  and  I  were  most  comfortably 
installed.  To  give  us  complete  privacy,  our 
entrance  court  was  entirely  enclosed  by  a  high 
fence  of  thickly  plaited  elephant  grass.  Be- 
sides two  feathery  acacias  which  shaded  this 
court,  a  young  pawpaw-tree  grew  in  one  comer 
with  a  fine  ring  of  encircHng  fruit.  I  was  very 
fond  of  this  rather  tasteless,  but  exceedingly 
wholesome  fruit,  and  with  a  jealous  eye  watched 
each  golden  globe  ripen.     But  I  was  always 

99 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

foiled,  for  the  natives  are  as  fond  of  it  as  I, 
and  woiild  come  by  night  and  pluck  the  paw- 
paws at  the  psychic  moment. 

The  roof  of  my  room  was  separated  from  the 
walls  by  a  strip  of  netting,  which  admitted 
a  current  of  air,  and  added  greatly  to  my 
comfort.  At  eight  o'clock  a  boy  would  bring 
in  my  tea  and  fruit.  At  half -past  eight  two 
more  would  roll  in  the  big  zinc  tub  and  fetch 
large  jugs  of  hot  water.  At  a  little  after  nine 
breakfast  was  annoimced,  and  so  the  day  began. 

In  Rome  do  as  the  Romans  do  —  eat  what 
the  Romans  eat,  but,  desirous  as  I  was  to  carry 
out  this  rule,  I  did  not  get  a  chance  to  taste 
such  delicacies  as  white  ants  aux  naturelles, 
or  a  favorite  dish  the  natives  make  out  of  an 
infinitesimal  insect  which  haunts  Lake  Vic- 
toria. Out  on  the  sky-line,  twenty  miles  or 
more  away,  lie  the  Sesse  Islands,  the  abode 
of  the  tsetse  fly,  and  now  almost  depopulated 
by  the  sleeping-sickness.  Occasionally  we 
used  to  see  rising  from  their  distant  blue  forests 
what  looked  like  curling  spirals  of  smoke.  If 
the  wind  blew  toward  us  it  brought  over  these 
100 


ENTEBBE 

smoky  coliimns,  which  were  composed  of  an 
infinite  number  of  infinitesimal  flies,  —  kungu 
flies,  they  were  called,  —  that  swept  down  on 
us  in  suffocating  clouds,  darkening  the  skies, 
shutting  out  the  daylight,  sometimes  coming  so 
thickly  as  to  hide  objects  a  hundred  feet  away. 
Even  with  all  doors  and  windows  shut  they  sift 
into  the  house.  These  are  considered  a  great 
delicacy  by  the  Baganda,  who  cook  them,  in  a 
sort  of  pancake.  •  ,'  '-^  ' 

There  are  many  native  Indian  and,  Arab 
words  in  common  use  among  the  English  resi- 
dents in  East  Africa.  As  there  are  no  tele- 
phones, written  messages  are  sent  from  house 
to  house  by  boys.  These  three-cornered  notes 
are  called  chits.  It  is  not  the  custom  — 
dusturi  —  in  Entebbe  to  have  bells  or  knockers 
1 1  the  front  doors ;  so  instead  of  knocking  the 
^  isitor  calls  out  hodi,  an  Arab  word  meaning 
*'  hail."  Also  the  servant  who  comes  to  your 
bedroom  with  a  cup  of  tea  calls  hodi.  I 
^hink  that  the  custom  arose  with  the  Arabs 
from  the  fact  that,  living  in  tents,  they  had  no 
ioor  or  lintel  to  knock,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
101 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

call  out.  And  the  habit  has  become  grafted 
on  the  life  of  their  African  neighbors.  The 
Arab  terms  Bwana  and  Bibi  are  always  pre- 
fixed to  names  and  titles.  In  telling  a  boy  to 
wait  on  my  mother  my  sister  woiild  say: 
"  Take  this  to  the  Bibi  mamma."  My  brother- 
in-law  was  always  "  the  Bwana  judge."  The 
maid  Nannina  was  "  the  Bibi  maid." 

One  learns  quickly  the  few  phrases  necessary 
xo  express  oneself  to  the  native  servants.  The 
piajority  of  these  are  Swahilis,  from  a  tribe 
living  near  the  coast.  Letti  happa  maji 
moto,  for  instance,  means  "  Bring  here  hot 
water."  Happana  means  every  kind  of  neg- 
ative. 

The  garden  boys  —  or  '' shamba  boys,''  and 
water  and  wood  boys,  are,  generally,  Baganda 
(natives  of  Uganda) .  The  best  cooks  are  Goan- 
ese,  a  mixture  of  Indian  and  Portuguese  coming 
from  the  west  coast  of  India.  These  have  a 
natural  aptitude  for  cooking,  and  the  variety  of 
dishes  which  they  send  out  of  their  primitive 
kitchens  is  wonderful.  The  stove  is  a  sort  of 
high  brick  coimter,  divided  into  recesses  by 
102 


ENTEBBE 

more  bricks.  In  each  of  these  recesses  a  fire  of 
twigs  is  built,  and  on  these  fires  all  the  baking, 
broiling,  frying,  roasting,  and  stewing  is  done. 
The  Goanese  cook  always  sends  in  just  enough 
of  every  dish  for  those  to  be  served,  but  if  an 
unexpected  half  a  dozen  or  even  dozen  guests 
come  in  to  dinner  he  performs  the  miracle 
of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  for  he  never  fails  to 
produce  a  complete  dinner,  in  courses,  with 
enough  of  each  course  for  the  assembled  multi- 
tude. This  he  does  with  hardly  any  delay  and 
with  never  a  murmur.  In  fact,  he  rather  likes  the 
extra  tax  on  his  resources.  Each  cook  has 
always  one  or  two  'mtotos,  or  assistants.  These 
are  generally  native  boys,  and  as  the  kitchen 
is  apt  to  be  warm  their  attire  is  very  light, 
and  to  peep  into  the  kitchen  just  as  a  meal 
is  to  be  served  leaves  a  strange  picture  on  the 
memory.  The  Goanese  cook  has  the  regular 
features  of  the  Indian,  his  inky  hair  is  long  and 
straight,  but  his  skin  is  almost  as  black  as  the 
African.  He  is  dressed  in  white.  His  'mtotos' 
dark  bodies  shine  in  the  lurid  light  of  the 
blazing  fires.  The  walls  of  the  kitchen  are 
103 


SOMB    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

black  as  the  night  outside,  for,  having  no 
chimney,  the  smoke  wanders  about  a  good  deal 
before  it  escapes  through  the  hole  in  the  roof, 
but  never  gets  into  the  food.  This  latter  is 
cooking  in  all  sorts  of  strange  utensils  and  sends 
out  good  and  promising  odors.  The  scene  at 
night  when  dinner  is  preparing  recalls  some 
of  Orcagna's  wonderful  frescoes  of  the  Inferno 
in  the  Campo  Santo  at  Pisa. 

The  servants'  w^ages  vary  according  to  the 
experience  and  skill  of  each.  The  cook,  or 
'mpishi,  get  from  fifty  to  eighty  rupees  a  month. 
The  head  boy  may  receive  sixty  rupees,  and 
from  this  the  pay  scales  down  to  the  water-boys, 
who  get  five  or  six  rupees  a  month.'  The  serv- 
ants all  look  out  for  their  own  food ;  the  master 
is  not  supposed  to  provide  any,  though  probably 
the  scanty  bits  left  from  the  table  are  eaten 
by  the  chief  boys.  In  dealing  with  all  African 
native  servants,  and  this  includes  those  from 
Cairo  to  the  Cape,  the  attitude  must  be  unre- 
mittingly that  of  master  and  servant.  Justice 
and  severity  must  be  evenly  mixed.    A  certain 

^  It  takes  about  three  rupees  to  make  a  dollar. 

104. 


ENTEBBE 

distant  kindliness  may  be  practised,  but  none 
of  the  more  familiar  friendliness  with  which 
in  this  country  we  recognize  the  brotherhood 
of  man  even  in  the  relation  of  house-servant 
and  householder.  Any  leniency  or  excessive 
kindness  is  generally  misunderstood  by  the 
native  and  results  in  an  irremediable  demorali- 
zation. 

All  the  water  used  in  Entebbe  is  brought  in 
whilom  paraffine  cans  from  the  lake  nearly 
a  mile  away  on  the  heads  of  the  water-boys, 
who  pass  up  and  down  the  livelong  day,  supply- 
ing kitchen,  house  and  garden.  The  fuel  used 
is  wood  from  the  jungle,  and  such  aromatic 
smoke  comes  from  the  hole  in  the  roof  of  the 
cook-house,  that  one  could  fancy  oneself  within 
range  of  a  swinging  censer  in  a  Catholic  service. 
The  lofty  incense-trees,  with  their  dense,  pin- 
nated foliage,  are  quite  a  feature  in  the  land- 
scape at  Entebbe.  The  broad  green  fields  which 
sweep  down  from  the  Front  Road  to  the  lake 
are  dotted  with  them. 

Where  the  ground  dips  into  Victoria  Nyanza, 
in  sheltered  inlets  grows  the  beautiful  papyrus  in 
107 


SOME    AFRICAN    fflGHWAYS 

feathery  profusion.  Nesting  in  the  shrubs 
which  overhang  a  quiet  comer  of  the  lake,  not 
a  half -hour's  walk  from  my  sister's  house,  are 
hundreds  of  darting,  twittering  yellow  weaver 
birds,  their  long,  wonderful  nests  swinging 
in  the  breeze. 

The  Sesse  Archipelago,  which  lies  blue  on  the 
horizon,  is  composed  of  one  very  large  island 
that  is  nearly  divided  in  the  middle,  the  two 
ends  being  connected  by  a  narrow  isthmus, 
and  about  eight  or  nine  smaller  islands,  which, 
like  the  larger  ones,  are  inhabited,  though  they 
have  been  devastated  by  the  sleeping-sickness. 
Besides  these  there  are  countless  islets  and 
rocks. 

The  Basesse,'  as  the  inhabitants  are  called, 
are  great  fishermen,  and  are  adventurous 
navigators  in  their  long,  queerly  shaped  canoes. 
These  canoes  are  a  striking  feature  of  Victoria 
Nyanza,  their  curious,  disconnected  prows 
rising  and  shooting  away  from  the  canoe  like 

^  The  prefix  bu  means  one  individual,  while  ba  or  wa  means 
many.  For  instance,  Buganda  is  one  resident  of  Uganda,  while 
Baganda  is  the  plural  use  of  the  word.  Lu  means  the  language ; 
so  Luganda  is  the  speech  of  Uganda. 

108 


ENTEBBE 

the  head  of  a  pterodactyl  or  some  other  pre- 
historic monster. 

Victoria  Nyanza  is  said  to  be  second  only  to 
Lake  Superior  in  area  among  fresh-water  lakes. 
It  is  approximately  270  miles  long  by  225  miles 
broad,  with  an  area  of  27,000  square  miles.  It 
is  a  shallow  body  of  water,  240  feet  being  the 
greatest  depth  sounded.  Its  shores  are  fringed 
with  many  islands,  so  arranged,  especially 
at  the  north  end  of  the  lake,  to  form  a  well- 
protected  channel,  which  makes  it  safe  for 
such  craft  as  are  on  the  lake  to  go  from  port 
to  port.  The  centre  of  the  lake  is  subject  to 
sudden,  fierce  and  dangerous  storms,  with 
frequent  waterspouts.  It  is  said  that  no  boat 
has  ever  crossed  the  middle  of  the  lake  from 
north  to  south  or  east  to  west.  There  is  no 
knowing  what  new  features  might  be  discov- 
ered there. 

Besides  the  well-known  denizens  of  these 
deeps,  such  as  water -pythons,  crocodiles,  and 
hippopotami,  native  legends  are  built  upon 
the  existence  of  a  strange  monster  called  by 
the  Baganda  Lukwata.  From  the  description 
109 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

of  those  who  say  they  have  seen  it,  "  it  might 
be,"  says  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  "  a  small  cetacean 
or  a  large  form  of  manatee,  or  more  probably, 
a  gigantic  fish."  The  only  European  who  has 
caught  a  glimpse  of  it  so  far  has  been  Sir 
Clement  Hill,  who  in  1900  was  nearly  capsized 
in  a  small  steam-laimch  by  a  monstrous  creature, 
which  seemed  to  have  a  large,  square,  ilshlike 
head.  In  vain,  however,  did  I  scan  the  calm 
and  smiling  surface  of  the  lake  for  a  sight  of 
the  Lukwata. 

On  land,  besides  the  biting  siafu  ants  and 
tics  and  jiggers,  we  were  rather  on  the  lookout 
in  walking  through  long  grass  for  puff-adders, 
the  most  deadly  of  all  snakes,  and  momhas, 
a  close  second  to  them.  I  never  saw  any  of 
the  former,  however,  and  only  one  of  the  lat- 
ter, and  it  was  a  dead  one  in  the  Botanical  Gar- 
dens. The  puff-adders  are  said  to  be  rather  slug- 
gish, and  do  not  bite  unless  actually  stepped  on. 

But  one  soon  loses  any  sense  of  danger  in  the 

well-ordered    days    which    distinguish    life    in 

Entebbe.      Their    dignified,    leisurely    system 

varies  little.     From  breakfast  till  noon  the  offi- 

110 


ENTEBBE 

cials  —  for  this  is  an  official  station  with  little 
or  no  business  or  trade  —  work  at  their  allotted 
tasks,  while  the  ladies  either  stay  well  indoors 
(on  account  of  the  equatorial  sun)  or  don  pith 
helmets  to  superintend  work  in  their  gardens, 
or  do  commissions.  At  noon  comes  luncheon. 
From  two  to  four  is  given  up  to  siestas,  even 
the  *'  boys  "  taking  their  naps  then.  At  tea 
time,  from  four  to  five,  is  much  visiting,  both 
men  and  women  attending  to  this  carefully. 
The  tennis-courts,  beautifully  situated  on  the 
town's  green  front,  are  energetically  patronized 
from  half  past  four  till  six,  when  the  sun  drops 
down  behind  the  hills,  and,  with  the  bugle-call 
from  the  near-by  guard-station,  night  comes 
suddenly.  From  six,  to  time  to  dress  for  dinner 
at  eight  or  eight-thirty,  "  bridge  "  is  the  order 
of  the  day,  for  both  men  and  women.  There 
is  much  dining  and  other  entertaining  here, 
and  when  gathered  about  a  table  laden  with 
silver,  gay  with  flowers,  and  lighted  by  shaded 
candles,  with  all  the  wines  of  Europe  and  the 
delicacies  of  Africa  set  before  one,  it  is  hard 
to  realize  that  this  is  the  centre  of  a  savage 
111 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

land  where  brutal  darkness  and  cruel  super- 
stition have  hardly  yielded  an  iota  to  Euro- 
pean invasion.  Not  the  least  pleasant  part 
of  the  evening  is  the  ride  home  in  the  gharri, 
through  the  cool,  silent,  fragrant  night,  with 
one  barefooted  boy  pulling  in  the  shafts,  while 
two  more  push  behind,  and  a  fourth  pads 
noiselessly  along  carrying  the  lantern.  Every 
one  who  rides  or  walks  abroad  after  nightfall  has 
a  boy  with  a  lantern,  to  light  his  way.  These 
lights  bobbing  up  and  down  the  broad  roads  look 
like  giant  fireflies.  Even  when  there  is  moon- 
light they  use  lanterns,  as  snakes  are  said  to 
crawl  about  these  shining  nights. 

No  one  can  come  to  an  English  colony  with- 
out marvelling  at  the  skill  with  which  the  Eng- 
lish turn  a  wilderness  into  an  orderly,  habitable 
place.  Here  they  have  introduced  the  hours 
and  customs  of  the  West  End  of  London  into 
the  heart  of  Darkest  Africa,  giving,  in  a  short 
three  years,  form,  comfort  and  dignity  to  life 
with  a  completeness  that  eliminates  even  won- 
der, so  natural  and  simple  does  it  seem.  Yet 
what  other  nation  could  do  it? 
112 


CHAPTER   V 

A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

TT  was  the  King  of  England's  birthday, 
November  9,  1905,  and,  to  the  furthest 
comer  of  the  British  Empire,  the  day  was 
observed  by  English  officials  with  what  pomp 
and  ceremony  their  circumstances  permitted. 
In  Entebbe,  a  royal  salute  was  fired  at 
eight  A.  M.  from  Signal  Hill.  Those  of  us 
who  were  not  yet  up  were  shaken  out  of  our 
beds  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  importance  of 
the  day.  Pulling  aside  the  curtain,  I  looked  out 
on  the  usual  morning  scene:  a  foreground  of 
bare  red  earth,  well  beaten  down  by  the  coming 
and  going  of  many  unshod  feet;  the  garden 
gay  with  flowers;  the  sloping  stretch  of  green 
fields  where  the  cattle  of  Entebbe  grazed  peace- 
fully, escorted  by  their  inevitable  flocks  of 
white  paddy-birds  who  feed  on  the  tics  that 
feed  on  the  cattle  (nobody  feeds  on  the  paddy- 
113 


SOME    AFRICAN    fflGHWAYS 

birds).  Beyond,  the  lake  lay  glistening  and 
blue,  with  the  Sesse  Archipelago  on  the  horizon. 
Near  my  window  a  half  a  dozen  of  the  daintiest 
little  birds  were  pecking  at  the  crumbs  that 
accumulate  about  the  dining-room  door ;  smaller 
than  sparrows,  sleek  and  comely,  some  of 
gleaming  crimson,  others  of  shining  green » 
they  looked  as  if  just  escaped  from  some  rare 
bird-house.  The  two  Irish  terriers,  Tim  and 
Muggles,  were  chasing  the  nimble  lizards  which 
flashed,  green  and  brown,  in  and  out  of  cracks. 
Through  the  garden  ambled,  in  single  file, 
the  water-boys,  clad  in  raggedest  sacking  and 
balancing  easily  on  their  shorn  heads  the  ex- 
paraffine  cans  of  water  which  they  had  dipped 
up  from  the  lake,  a  mile  away.  As  the  lake  is 
supplied  —  as  far  as  is  known  —  not  from 
springs,  but  from  the  drainage  of  its  wooded 
shores,  the  water  is  quite  soft  and  pleasant  for 
bathing,  though  it  has  to  be  boiled  for  drinking. 
Not  far  away  Joheri,  the  cook's  assistant,  sat 
on  his  haunches  giving  —  from  the  earth  imder 
his  hand  —  what  might  be  called  a  dry  wash 
to  some  kitchen  utensil.  He  is  like  a  splendid 
114 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

bronze  statue  of  the  most  robust  Roman  period, 
while  his  head  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to 
busts  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius  in  his  youth,  the 
features  and  shape  of  the  skull  being  singularly 
un-African.  Through  the  open  window  comes 
the  aromatic  odor  of  smoke  from  the  cook- 
house near  by,  where  some  precious  wood  is 
being  used  for  the  fires. 

Already  the  road  beyond  the  high  hedge  is 
growing  noisy  with  the  voices  of  passers-by, 
while,  through  its  interstices  come  flashes  of 
the  bright  colors  the  natives  love  to  wear;  for 
every  one  is  hurrying  to  the  review  of  the  troops 
which  the  commissioner  is  to  hold  soon.  The 
troops  are  made  up  of  a  few  Sikhs  from  India 
and  the  King's  African  Rifles,  native  soldiers 
under  English  officers,  and  a  fine,  sturdy,  effi- 
cient body  of  men  they  are  in  their  khaki  uni- 
forms. In  the  early  days  of  British  rule  in 
this  country  the  predecessors  of  these  native 
troops  twice  revolted,  once  in  1893,  when  in 
one  or  two  cases  they  not  only  killed,  but  also 
ate,  their  officers;  again  in  1896,  troops  brought 
down  from  more  northern  territories  mutinied 
115 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

because  of  what  they  claimed  (and  not  without 
justice)  was  a  broken  contract.  Both  wxre 
bloody  insurrections  bravely  suppressed  by  a 
handful  of  English.  And  now  they  say  that 
King  Edward  has  no  more  faithful  fighters  than 
these  erstwhile  savages. 

The  review  showed  excellent  training  and 
was  interesting  as  all  military  parades  are. 
It  was  followed  by  a  morning  levee  at  the 
Government  House,  where  the  commissioner 
or  governor  received,  in  their  order  of  rank, 
all  the  officials  of  his  administration,  each  in 
the  regulation  full  dress  of  his  department. 
For  even  civil  officials  in  an  English  colony 
have  a  uniform  for  such  an  occasion.  Then 
came  those  not  on  the  civil  or  military  lists,  all 
the  merchants  and  agents  et  al.,  and  then  the 
most  interesting  of  all,  the  African  chiefs  in 
their  full  regalia  of  feathers,  beads  and  gay 
deckings.  All  we  women  saw  of  them  was  as 
they  passed  through  the  streets  to  and  from 
the  levee,  as  it  was  a  purely  official  fimction 
and  no  ladies  were  present. 

In  the  evening  the  commissioner  and  Mrs. 
116 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

Hayes-Sadler  gave  a  grand  dinner,  also  strictly 
official  in  character,  and  followed  this  with  a 
general  ball,  which  included  every  white  person 
within  a  day's  journey. 

Government  House  was  a  charming  residence, 
built  on  slightly  rising  ground  so  that  the  back 
opened  out  on  a  level  terrace,  while  the  front 
verandas  were  approached  by  a  broad,  hos- 
pitable flight  of  steps,  banked  on  both  sides 
by  a  beautiful  collection  of  ferns  and  flowering 
plants.  The  wide,  screened-in  veranda  stretched 
the  full  length  of  this  side  of  the  house,  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  or  fifty  feet  from 
end  to  end.  The  big  reception-room,  into  which 
one  steps  from  this,  was  high-ceilinged  and  of 
generous  proportions.  Its  vast  white  walls 
were  hung  with  the  finest  lion  and  tiger  skins 
I've  ever  seen,  for  Colonel  Sadler  is  an  ardent 
and  skilful  sportsman,  and  these  were  all 
trophies  of  his  chase.  The  room  was  effectively 
furnished  with  a  mingling  of  eastern  and  western 
furniture;  while  books,  photographs,  and  a 
profusion  of  flowers  always  gave  it  a  peculiarly 
habitable  look. 

117 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

The  night  of  the  ball  it  was  a  veritable  bower 
of  vines,  roses,  and  tropical  blossoms,  and  w^ell 
lighted  with  lamps  and  candles.  The  long 
veranda  was  hting  with  flags  and  draperies  and 
one-half  of  it  was  devoted  to  bridge-players,  for 
whom  eight  or  ten  tables  were  placed  in  a  row 
with  cigars,  cigarettes,  and  decanters  near  at 
hand. 

Here,  as  in  all  out-of-the-way  frontier  settle- 
ments, the  men  far  outnumber  the  women. 
There  w^ere  that  evening  eighteen  ladies,  and 
between  seventy  and  eighty  men,  so  partners 
were  never  lacking,  and  the  dancers  among 
the  ladies  were  kept  whirling  to  the  point  of 
exhaustion.  Remote  though  we  were  from 
civilization,  the  assemblage  would  have  done 
credit  to  any  place.  The  women  were  exceed- 
ingly well  dressed,  and  most  of  the  men  bore 
the  unmistakable  stamp  of  the  well-bom 
Englishman,  while  their  smart  uniforms  were 
a  distinct  improvement  on  the  conventional 
black  and  white  evening  dress.  The  music 
was  supplied  by  a  pianola,  while  in  the  intervals, 
from  an  excellent  gramophone  in  a  shaded  nook 
118 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

on  the  veranda,  floated  strains  of  Melba's 
songs,  Sarasate's  violin  and  other  musical  gems. 

Outside  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  squatted  the 
rickshaw-boys,  a  cheerful,  chattering  crowd 
who  evidently  enjoyed  the  music  and  the 
revelry. 

The  supper  was  a  triumph  of  culinary  art, 
both  in  its  variety  and  excellence.  Every  sort 
of  salad  and  cold  meat  dish  one  could  think  of 
was  there,  including  a  couple  of  sucking-pigs 
sent  over  by  the  missionaries  of  the  Sesse 
Islands;  while  puddings  and  jellies  and  sweet 
dishes  of  all  kinds  shook  and  quivered  and 
swiftly  disappeared  before  the  sedately  hungry 
crowd.  Delicious  red  and  white  wine  cups  and 
champagne  and  other  beverages  flowed  freely, 
and  it  must  have  been  close  to  dawn  when  the 
last  guest  wended  his  way  homeward  behind 
his  twinkling  lantern.  Probably  some  of  the 
revellers  thought  they  were  following  twin 
lanterns. 

As  I  looked  out  in  a  pause  of  the  evening 
through  the  vines  that  draped  one  end  of  the 
veranda,  across  a  fragrant  rose  garden,  to  the 
121 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

tall  trees  of  the  Botanical  Gardens  and  saw 
the  stars  grow  in  splendor  as  the  glare  of  the 
dancing-room  faded  out  of  my  eyes,  I  said  to 
myself:  "  Can  this  be  the  equator?  Is  this 
what  was  so  short  a  time  ago  *  Darkest  Africa?  ' 
Is  that  Victoria  Nyanza?  "  Near  at  hand  a 
gently  bred  lot  of  people  w^ere  dancing  to  the 
time  of  "  Hiawatha,"  Others  were  gambling 
mildly  at  bridge;  still  others  were  drinking 
the  wines  of  France  or  Germany,  and  eating 
salmon  from  the  Columbia  River,  caviar  from 
Russia,  fruits  from  India  and  any  quantity  of 
excellent  edibles  from  Uganda! 

As  a  rule,  except  perhaps  for  an  early  morn- 
ing stroll  among  the  roses  in  the  garden,  w^e 
didn't  go  out  very  much  before  four  or  four- 
thirty,  but  occasionally  we  would  don  our  pith 
helmets,  order  out  the  gharri  (as  rickshaws 
are  called  in  Entebbe)  and  trundle  down  to 
the  shops,  where  there  are  more  things  that 
one  doesn't  want  than  can  be  imagined;  blue, 
white  and  green  bulbous  glass  articles;  coarse 
muslins  and  Canton  flannels;  bright  printed 
calicoes,  and  every  kind  of  utensils  and  tinned 
1^2 


©itPARTMENT  OF  CIVII-  E^4GJMEER|f^ 
nF-RKELEY.  CALIFORNIA 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

goods  at  enormous  prices.  A  sleek,  soft-voiced 
Indian  or  Goanese  merchant  comes  forward 
to  serve  you.  Sometimes  you  may  find  a 
piece  of  bark  cloth  or  some  pretty  native  mats 
or  basketwork  which  are  worth  buying.  The 
bark  cloth  is  a  curious,  rather  unpliable  stuff 
made  by  beating  out  the  inner  bark  of  a  local 
tree,  the  wild  fig.  This  is  stained  a  soft  reddish 
brown,  and  generally  painted  in  some  queer 
design  in  black.  The  natives  wear  this,  draping 
it  gracefully  about  them  in  spite  of  its  seeming 
stiffness,  which  must  soon  leave  it  on  use. 

After  doing  our  commissions  perhaps  we 
would  stop  at  the  club  —  a  great  institution  — 
where  ladies  are  admitted  till  six  o'clock. 
There  is  an  excellent  library  in  the  club,  from 
which  members  can  take  books,  and  which  sup- 
plied us  with  our  reading  during  our  whole  stay. 
The  latest  papers  and  magazines  cover  a  big 
table  in  the  centre  of  the  room.  The  crowded 
hour  here  is  from  six  to  eight,  when  all  the 
bridge-players  gather  for  a  rubber  before  dinner ; 
and  all  the  other  men  come  for  a  chat  and  a 
glass  of  whiskey  and  soda.  This  habit  is  push- 
123 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHW^AYS 

ing  the  Entebbe  dinner-hour  from  eight  to  half 
past.  The  Uganda  kitchens  are  not  in  the  fell 
clutches  of  the  Irish  or  Scandivanian  "  help," 
who  has  to  be  free  for  her  own  social  duties 
at  half  past  eight.  No  such  claims  are  made  on 
the  Goanese  cook,  who,  after  his  work,  retires 
to  some  haunt  of  his  own.  To  be  sure  he  not 
infrequently  gets  dnmk»  But  as  he  is  apt 
to  cook  better  under  this  exhilaration  he  is 
not  much  interfered  with.  His  intoxication 
is  generally  manifested  by  a  tendency  to  hit 
the  other  boys  with  a  saucepan  or  anything 
he  finds  handy.  A  helter-skelter  rush  from 
the  kitchen-house,  accompanied  by  suppressed 
yells  and  laughter,  announces  such  crises.  But 
the  dinner  always  appears  in  due  order,  without 
outside   interference. 

On  the  west  end  of  the  forked  peninsula 
on  which  Entebbe  is  situated,  is  a  huge  banana 
plantation,  covering  a  couple  of  square  miles 
or  more  of  ground.  Roads  wind  in  and  out  in 
a  perplexing  maze,  and  the  place  is  an  interest- 
ing one  to  visit  on  an  afternoon's  ride.  To  get 
to  it  you  cross  a  low,  rather  marshy  tract,  where 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

the  coarse  grass  of  the  tropics  grows  lush  and 
strong.  All  through  this  ride  care  must  be 
taken  on  account  of  the  frequent  holes,  made 
close  under  the  surface  of  seemingly  solid  road 
by  ants  or  by  water  erosion.  It  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  have  your  horse  sink  into  one  of  these 
traps  up  to  his  knee.  Therefore  anything  like 
a  brisk  canter  is  out  of  the  question.  But 
there  is  enough  to  interest  you  to  make  even 
a  slow  ride  pleasant.  Strange  Kavirondo 
cranes  trail  low  across  the  sky  overhead,  looking 
as  if  they  had  flown  straight  out  of  some  Japa- 
nese screen,  the  gorgeous  red  ruffs  and  smart 
black  and  white  plumage  flashing  gaily  against 
the  deep  blue  sky.  Underfoot  perhaps  we 
cross  a  caravan  of  stafu  ants,  a  long,  thick, 
shiny  black  line  coming  from  the  grass  across 
the  road  to  disappear  again  in  the  grass.  Most 
horrid  they  are  to  meet  on  a  walk,  because  if 
you  inadvertently  step  on  their  procession  they 
swarm  quickly  over  you,  and  their  bite  is  fero- 
cious and  exquisitely  painful.  If  a  house  comes 
in  their  line  of  march  they  sweep  it  clear  of  every 
form  of  insect  life  before  they  resume  their 

125 


SOIVIE    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

progress  to  parts  unknown.  Their  front  nippers 
or  mandibles  are  like  steel,  and  their  tempers 
are  anything  but  pleasant,  so  'ware  the  siafu 
ant  when  you  meet  him! 

When  we  got  to  the  banana  plantation  on 
the  afternoon  in  which  I  explored  it,  we  fotmd 
ourselves  in  a  silent  wilderness  of  these  dull, 
but  useful  trees.  A  slight  mist,  premonitory 
of  rain,  had  come  up.  Moisture  dripped  from 
the  big  ragged  leaves.  No  bird  or  other  life 
was  manifest.  The  stillness,  monotony,  and 
sense  of  remoteness  weighed  on  one.  The 
horses'  hoofs  padded  soundlessly  on  the  damp 
sand.  The  road  —  so  narrow  we  had  to  go 
single  file  —  turned  and  twisted  aimlessly,  and 
was  crossed  by  other  equally  narrow  and  aim- 
less paths.  Sometimes  the  trees  grew  so  close 
over  our  way  that  their  great,  flabby  leaves 
flapped  with  wet  caresses  our  faces  and  shoul- 
ders. At  rare  intervals  we  came  on  little  clear- 
ings, where  one  or  more  grass  huts  testified 
to  some  himian  habitation.  Where  the  in- 
habitants were  that  gray  afternoon  I  don't 
know,  as  all  we  saw  of  them  was  an  occasional 
126 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

shadowy  form  slipping  in  and  out  among  the 
trees  on  either  side  of  our  road,  and  quickly 
disappearing ;  for  the  plantation  was  a  thick  one 
and  a  person  could  soon  vanish  from  sight  in 
the  maze  of  its  low,  uniform  growth.  Too  high 
to  see  over;  too  low  to  see  under;  the  trees 
seemed  to  enclose  us  with  a  sense  of  helpless 
apathy  as  the  twilight  crept  up  that  gray 
Sunday  afternoon,  and  I  was  glad  to  escape 
out  into  the  gentle  shower  which  beat  upon  us 
as  we  made  our  way  home  in  the  fast  falling 
night. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  had  the  day  been  one  of 
the  usual  bright  ones  of  the  coimtry  the  planta- 
tion w^ould  not  have  made  on  us  that  weird  and 
triste  impression.  It  would  have  seemed  merely 
a  very  large  growth  of  useful  banana-trees,  — 
one  of  the  main  supports  of  the  natives  — 
the  principal  fact  w^hich  enables  them  to  live 
with  the  maximum  of  comfort  and  the  minimum 
of  labor.  One  sees  them  continually  carrying 
great  bunches  of  this  nourishing  fruit,  which 
grows  so  generally.  One  of  the  most  vivid 
mental  pictures  which  I  shall  carry  away  with 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

me  is  that  of  a  Buganda  woman,  small,  supple, 
well-rounded  of  limb,  wearing  a  drapery  of  the 
richest  indigo  blue  fastened  under  her  arms, 
leaving  her  shoulders  bare  (a  beautiful  bronze) , 
and  carrying  on  her  head  a  symmetrical  bunch 
of  green  bananas,  the  two  lower  ones  coming 
down  like  two  green  horns  clasping  either  side 
of  her  head.  The  red  road,  which  was  her  back- 
groimd,  was  glowing  in  the  afternoon  sun. 
The  sky  was  an  intense  blue  overhead,  and  the 
whole  scene  —  the  figure  and  the  background 
—  made  an  instant  tmf orgettable  impression  of 
intense  color  and  life,  such  as  is  to  be  fotmd 
only  in  the  tropics. 

The  only  thing  which  forces  the  natives  to 
work  is  the  hut  tax  levied  by  the  English. 
With  clothes  and  food  "  growing  on  bushes,'* 
as  it  were,  and  a  predisposition  to  indolence, 
no  other  consideration  wotdd  rouse  them  to 
exertion. 

They  use  the  banana  in  various  forms.     The 

green  banana,  pounded  to  a  pulp  and  cooked, 

is  their  chief  article  of  diet.     They  also  eat 

it  ripCo    They  make  out  of  it  a  sweet  beer,  and 

128 


A    HOLIDAY    IN    UGANDA 

also   a  heady   spirit.      It   supplies  them   with 
soap,  plates,  dishes,  napkins,  with  material  for 
foot-bridges,  and  they  even  use  the  hollow  stems 
for  pipes  in  West  Uganda.      It  was  probably 
introduced    into    Africa    in    some    prehistoric 
time,  though  a  wild  species  is  indigenous  there. 
Before  leaving  Entebbe  I  must  mention  the 
Botanical  Gardens,  one  of  the  features  of  the 
place.     They  are  situated  on  the  shores  of  an 
inlet  of  the  lake  to  the  northeast  of  the  town 
and  are  a  monument  to  the  English  love  of 
horticulture.     It  is  an  enchanting  spot,   with 
walks  and  roads  winding  in  and  out  of  a  wilder- 
ness of  rustling  palms,  gigantic  tree-ferns,  mas- 
sive incense-trees,  baobobs,  banyans,  and  any 
number  of  other  trees  of  the  tropics.     These 
gardens  were  started  by  Mr.  Alexander  Whyte. 
Besides   growing   specimens   of   all    the   trees, 
shrubs,  and  flowers  indigenous  to  that  country, 
those  in  charge  of  the  gardens  are  continually 
trying  experiments  with  plants  of  other  lands 
and  climes,   to  see  what  can  be  successfully 
transplanted  and  developed  in  Uganda.     The 
gardens  lie  on  a  steep  slope  of  land  descending 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

to  the  marshy  edge  of  a  lake  inlet,  a  spot  sup- 
posed to  be  rather  thickly  infested  with  croco- 
diles. Indeed  there  are  so  many  of  these  un- 
pleasing  monsters  about  the  shores  that  there 
can  be  no  swimming,  a  gentle  sport  which  would 
be  most  grateful  in  that  climate.  They  are 
said  to  prefer  dark  meat  to  light  —  but  even 
the  fairest  blond  would  not  care  to  put  the 
theory  to  a  test. 


ISO 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   SLEEPING  -  SICKNESS 

npHE  cloud  which  darkens  tropical  Africa 
from  the  west  coast,  across  the  vast,  un- 
known Congo  region,  as  far  east  as  the  eastern 
shores  of  Victoria  Nyanza,  is  the  dreaded 
*'  sleeping-sickness."  ^ 

This  strange,  inscrutable  disease  first  ap- 
peared in  West  Africa  about  fifteen  years  ago. 
It  is  thought  by  some  to  have  been  brought 
from  South  America.  By  slow  stages  it  crept 
across  the  Dark  Continent,  attacking  tribe 
after  tribe,  though  the  natives  of  Uganda 
have  paid  its  most  shocking  toll.  Out  of  a 
population  of  about  three  hundred  thousand 
in  1900,  two  hundred  thousand  died  of  sleeping- 
sickness  between  that  date  and  1906  in  the 
Protectorate  alone. 

*  Sometimes  called  bcri-beri,  never  correctly.  —  Ed. 

131 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

It  seldom  attacks  white  people.  In  Uganda 
there  were,  in  1905,  when  I  was  there, 
only  two  authentic  cases  among  European 
residents.  Since  then  Doctor  Tulloch,  one  of 
the  physicians  sent  out  to  investigate  the 
disease,  has  died  of  it.  He  was  infected  through 
a  cut  in  his  hand  while  dissecting  a  monkey 
which  had  the  sleeping-sickness.  It  is  probable 
that  this  greater  immunity  of  Europeans  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  wear  clothes.  It  is  now 
definitely  proved  that  this  disease  is  com- 
municated in  Central  and  East  Africa  entirely 
by  a  species  of  tsetse  fly,  the  glossina  palpalis. 
The  greater  exposure  of  the  surface  of  the 
body  of  natives  renders  them  more  liable  to 
be  bitten  by  this  insect. 

The  first  appearance  of  sleeping-sickness  in 
Uganda  was  in  July,  1901,  when  Dr.  A.  Cook, 
at  Kampala,  noted  eight  cases  of  a  mysterious 
disease.  At  the  beginning  of  the  following 
year  he  reported  that  over  two  hundred  natives 
had  died  of  the  disease  in  Buvuma,  one  of  the 
islands  in  Lake  Victoria.  Four  months  later 
came  reports  that  twenty  thousand  people  had 
13« 


Bakedi  —  Uganda  Protectorate 


Bari  Tribe  —  Gondokoro 

(Taken  by  A.  Lobo) 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

died  in  Busoga,  a  district  on  the  north  shore 
of  the  lake,  and  that  the  disease  was  spreading 
rapidly.  Still  in  the  same  year  the  death-roll 
was  increased  by  more  than  thirty  thousand, 
mainly  in  Usoga  and  on  the  islands  in  the  lake. 

In  1902  the  Royal  Society  sent  out  an  in- 
vestigating commission,  composed  of  Doctors 
Low,  Christy,  and  Castellani,  They  arrived  at 
Entebbe  in  July,  To  Doctor  Castellani  belongs 
the  especial  credit  for  being  the  first  to  discover 
the  germ  of  the  disease,  the  trypanosome  in 
the  blood.  But  whence  the  disease  came,  how 
it  was  conveyed,  or  how  to  cure  it,  were  still 
unknown. 

Colonel  Bruce  and  Doctor  Grieg  came  in 
1903  to  carry  the  investigations  still  further. 
In  April  of  that  year  Colonel  Bruce  announced 
that  the  disease  was  due  to  a  trypanosome 
conveyed  by  a  species  of  tsetse  fly,  the  glossina 
palpalis.  This  was  a  step  farther,  but  the 
main  problems  —  how  to  prevent  and  how  to 
cure  —  were  still  unsolved.  Meanwhile,  death's 
horrid  harvest  continued,  and  by  the  end  of 
that  year  the  official  records  reported  that  in 
136 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

Uganda  alone  over  ninety  thousand  had  fallen 
victims  to  sleeping-sickness.  Whole  districts 
were  depopulated  and  laid  waste. 

In  1904  Lieutenants  Gray  and  TuUoch 
of  the  Royal  Army  Medical  Corps  arrived  in 
Entebbe  to  continue  the  bacteriological  inves- 
tigations, which  two  years  later  cost  the  latter 
his  life.  Having  thoroughly  established  the 
tsetse  fly  as  the  sole  agent  in  the  spreading  of 
the  disease,  it  was  found  that  this  dread  insect 
flourished  only  in  damp,  shady  places  —  that 
it  could  not  live  far  from  water,  or  exposed 
to  sunlight.  In  a  tropical  coimtry  like  Central 
Africa  it  was  impossible  to  cut  down  all  trees 
near  rivers  and  lakes.  But  about  such  impor- 
tant settlements  as  Entebbe,  Kampala,  and 
Jinja  great  tracts  were  cleared,  while  natives 
were  warned  to  avoid  as  much  as  they  could 
dangerous  districts.  Sleeping-sickness  patients 
were,  as  far  as  possible,  segregated  and  guarded 
so  that  the  flies  could  not  bite  them,  as,  to 
carry  the  disease,  the  flies  have  to  bite  a 
victim  of  the  malady.  The  germ  then  de- 
velops in  the  fly  to  a  certain  stage,  when  the 
1S6 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

fly  can  transmit  it  by  biting  a  healthy  person. 
The  native  word  for  tsetse  fly  is  kivu,  and  in 
a  pamphlet  published  in  1906  by  Dr.  A.  D.  P. 
Hodges,  acting  senior  medical  officer  in  Uganda, 
he  says  that  the  kivu  has  always  been  in 
Uganda,  but  its  bite  was  harmless  until  the 
sleeping-sickness  appeared.  This  pamphlet, 
which  was  also  published  in  Luganda,  the 
language  of  Uganda,  was  widely  distributed 
among  the  natives  and  did  much  to  help  them 
understand  the  epidemic,  its  causes,  and  the 
precautions  necessary  to  prevent  its  utterly 
devastating  the  land.  The  kivu  never  travels 
far  from  where  it  is  hatched,  but  as  a  person 
may  have  sleeping-sickness  two  years  and  more 
before  its  most  serious  symptoms  appear,  and 
as  the  native  Africans  are  given  to  roaming 
over  great  distances,  the  spread  of  the  disease 
before  it  was  understood  was  inevitable.  But 
that  the  precautions  advocated  and  preached 
by  the  English  authorities  in  Central  and  East 
Africa  were  effective  is  proven  by  the  fact 
that  whereas  in  1903  thirty  thousand  four 
hundred  and  forty-one  died  of  it,  in  1905  the 
137 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

mortality  had  been  reduced  to  eight  thousand 
and  three. 

By  1904  sleeping-sickness  had  spread  to  the 
shores  of  Lake  Albert  and  the  Upper  Nile 
regions  and  was  threatening  the  Soudan.  Pro- 
fessor Minchin  was  sent  out  in  1905  as  a 
zoologist  to  make  a  special  study  of  the  tsetse  fly. 

The  fly  is  larger  than  our  house-fly,  but 
smaller  than  the  horse-fly.  Shaped  almost 
like  the  former,  its  distinguishing  feature, 
one  by  which  it  can  be  identified  without  fail, 
is  that  its  wrings  cross  each  other  when  it  is  not 
flying.  Its  instinct  is  to  bite;  this  it  does 
ferociously  and  swiftly.  But  its  bite  is  not 
dangerous  unless  in  a  district  where  there  is  sleep- 
ing-sickness. One  lit  on  the  neck  of  my  horse  as 
I  was  riding  through  a  rather  dense  piece  of 
forest  one  day ;  it  was  the  only  one  I  saw  except 
at  the  laboratory.  As  I  wore  a  veil  and  gloves, 
I  was  never  afraid.  Although  close  search 
has  been  made,  the  larva  or  grub  from  which 
the  fly  probably  comes  has  not  yet  been  dis- 
covered ;   its  family  life  is  still  a  mystery. 

In  1906  the  much  heralded  German  scientist, 
138 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

Doctor  Koch,  came.  He  studied  the  disease 
for  a  year,  and  then  announced  that  atoxyl,  a 
preparation  of  arsenic,  was  a  cure.  This  was 
received  with  great  rejoicing.  But,  alas,  it  has 
failed  in  the  further  and  final  tests.  It  may 
yet  prove  effective  if  used  in  the  earliest  stages 
of  the  malady. 

The  White  Fathers,  whose  good  work  among 
the  natives  in  Africa  has  long  been  famous, 
established  in  1902  a  hospital  for  sleeping-sick- 
ness sufferers  in  Kisubi,  near  Entebbe,  but 
every  one  of  their  patients  died,  and  they  could 
do  nothing  to  stay  the  disease,  though  they 
undoubtedly  did  much  to  alleviate  suffering 
by  their  sympathetic  and  devoted  nursing. 

The  best  description  of  the  disease  itself,  its 
symptoms  and  course,  is  that  published  in  the 
Royal  Society  Reports  of  the  Sleeping  Sickness 
Commission.  It  is  from  Low  and  Castellani's 
report  in  1903,  and  is  entitled,  *'  Symptoms 
and  Clinical  Features  of  Sleeping  Sickness:  " 

'*  The  symptoms  of  the  disease  begin  very 
insidiously,  some  slight  change  in  the  former 
mental  attitude  of  the  patient  being  the  first 
139 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

thing  noticed  by  the  relatives  of  the  patient. 
Next,  a  disincHnation  to  work,  with  a  tendency 
to  sit  about  and  rest  more  than  usual,  appears, 
and  at  this  time  headaches  and  other  transient 
pains  may  be  complained  of,  especially  pains 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  chest.  The  facial 
aspect  now  also  changes,  and  a  previously 
happy  and  intelligent  looking  negro  becomes, 
instead,  dull,  heavy  and  apathetic.  Once  these 
changes  have  appeared,  the  disease  may  run 
an  acute  or  more  or  less  chronic  course,  pro- 
gressing however  to  its  ultimate  fatal  termina- 
tion. It  is  about  that  time  that  one  usually 
sees  the  case,  and  an  ordinary  inspection  will 
reveal  many  of  the  following  points:  There 
is  the  dull,  heavy,  stupid  look,  a  slowness  in 
answering  questions,  and  when  speech  does 
come,  it  is  often  mumbling,  slow  and  thick; 
the  gait  is  best  expressed  by  the  term  shuffling. 
Headache,  vague  pains  and  chest  pains  may 
be  complained  of.  The  tongue  may  or  may  not 
at  this  time  show  the  characteristic  fine  tremor, 
and  in  some  cases  this  may  also  be  noticeable 
in  the  hands.  The  skin  is  often  soft,  and 
140 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

smooth,  or  it  may  be  slightly  roughened. 
Glandular  enlargements,  common  amongst  all 
natives,  may  be  prominent,  but  in  some  cases 
this  may  be  very  slight.  The  temperature  — 
a  very  important  point  —  is  elevated,  rising 
in  the  evenings  to  ioi°  or  102°  F.,  falling  to 
subnormal  in  the  morning,  the  range  often  ex- 
tending over  four  degrees  or  more,  and  the  pulse 
of  very  low  tension  is  accelerated,  varying  from 
90  to  130  beats  per  minute.  These  two  symp- 
toms are  of  the  greatest  diagnostic  importance 
in  the  early  recognition  of  the  disease.  On 
interrupting  the  examination  and  quietly  watch- 
ing the  patient,  he  will  probably  sit  down,  his 
head  may  nod,  his  eyes  close,  and  he  remains 
in  this  drowsy  lethargic  condition  until  asked 
again  some  questions.  If  one  takes  such 
a  case  into  hospital,  for  the  first  few  days 
a  slight  improvement  may  take  place;  the 
patient  gets  up  from  his  bed  daily,  sits  about 
the  doors  of  the  hospital,  sometimes  walks 
about  outside,  and  takes  a  little  more  interest 
in  life,  especially  at  meal-times.  Soon,  however, 
depending  on  whether  the  disease  is  to  run  an 
141 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

acute  or  chronic  course,  the  individual  gets 
worse,  he  stays  in  bed  more,  becomes  more 
drowsy  and  lethargic,  though  not  actually 
sleeping;  walking  at  the  same  time  becomes 
more  difficult,  and  he  eventually  remains 
constantly  in  bed. 

**  Tremors  now  usually  become  marked,  these 
being  of  a  fine  nature.  They  are  best  seen  in 
the  tongue  and  arms.  The  skin  may  become 
rough  and  lose  its  lustre,  but  eruptions,  though 
they  have  been  described,  are  not  common. 
Emaciation  and  general  weakness  become 
pronounced;  the  knee  reflexes,  which  were 
at  first  somewhat  exaggerated,  become  di- 
minished, .  .  .  and  saliva  often  dribbles  from 
the  mouth.  Drowsiness,  which  has  gradually 
been  increasing,  now  passes  on  to  coma,  from 
which  the  patients  can  only  be  roused  with 
difficulty ;  the  temperature  falls  to  subnormal,  in 
rare  cases  convulsive  fits  appear,  and  the  patient 
dies  in  a  complete  state  of  coma.  This  is  the 
common  course  of  an  ordinary  acute  case 
of  the  disease,  the  different  changes  taking 
about  a  month  or  six  weeks  for  completion, 
142 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

In  the  chronic  cases  the  symptoms  develop 
more  slowly,  and  they  remain  more  constant 
for  considerable  periods  of  time  without  any 
advance,  but  ultimately  the  patients  pass 
into  the  late  stages  described  above,  and 
eventually   die." 

The  devastation  that  has  been  wrought  in  this 
once  well-populated  land  has  to  be  seen  to  be 
appreciated.  The  harbor  at  Jinja  at  the  north 
end  of  the  lake,  at  the  point  where  the  Nile 
takes  its  first  start  for  the  north,  a  few  years 
ago  was  filled  with  native  craft  of  all  kinds, 
dhows,  dugouts,  and  the  strange,  high-beaked 
native  canoes.  Now  there  is  hardly  anything 
there  but  the  weekly  English  steamer,  and 
a  few  sailboats  belonging  to  English  resi- 
dents. 

Ten  years  ago  one  could  travel  through  that 
country  and  subsist  on  food  supplied  by  the 
natives  —  flour,  fruit,  vegetables,  eggs  and 
milk.  Now  each  travelling  caravan  has  to 
carry  its  own  supplies  as  it  moves  through  the 
ravaged  region.  On  every  hand  can  be  seen 
deserted  villages,  empty  straw  huts,  overgrown 

143 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

gardens  or  shambas,  whose  whilom  inhabit- 
ants have  all  succumbed  to  the  dread  sick- 
ness. 

I  went  to  the  government  laboratory  at 
Entebbe,  which  is  the  English  headquarters 
for  the  study  of  the  disease.  It  is  run  in  con- 
nection with  a  hospital  for  treating  the  native 
sufferers.  The  investigations  are  carried  on 
by  experimenting  on  monkeys. 

The  laboratory  itself  is  a  large  airy  room, 
overlooking  the  town,  the  green  shores,  and 
the  beautiful  lake,  with  the  Sesse  Archipelago 
—  the  haunt  of  the  tsetse  fly  —  lying  blue  on 
the  horizon  twenty  miles  away. 

At  the  back  of  the  laboratory,  on  the  upward 
slope  of  the  hill,  set  on  posts,  are  the  boxes 
for  the  monkeys,  some  fifty  of  which  were  peer- 
ing at  us  around  the  corners  of  their  homes  or 
through  the  chinks.  Some  few  brave  ones 
sat  on  the  tops  and  openly  inspected  us.  It 
was  a  curious  sensation  to  feel  that  fifty  pairs 
of  reproachful,  haunting  eyes  were  furtively, 
but  intently,  fixed  on  us.  Only  one,  a  dog- 
faced  baboon,  was  indifferent  to  us.  He  sat 
144 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

moodily    gazing    at    the    ground,    meditating 
on  his  wrongs. 

The  monkeys,  being  caught  in  a  wild  state, 
pine  so  in  captivity  and  are  so  sensitive  to  the 
altered  conditions  that  they  never  live  long 
enough  to  die  of  the  sleeping-sickness.  They 
are  inoculated  by  means  of  the  tsetse  flies, 
but,  much  to  the  chagrin  of  the  investigators, 
always  perish  from  some  other  ailment. 

Inside  the  laboratory  are  many  curious  cases, 
boxes,  bottles  and  jars,  and  a  queer  odor  of 
drugs  and  disinfectants,  while  in  little  netting 
cages  the  tsetse  flies  buzz  and  whir.  A  fly 
was  dissected  and  analyzed  under  the  micro- 
scope for  me.  Curious  monsters  they  appear 
when  magnified  thirty  or  forty  times.. 

An  infected  monkey  was  brought  in=  A 
native  attendant  held  its  arms  and  legs  while 
the  doctor  took  some  of  the  blood.  This  was 
placed  under  a  strong  lens,  and  there  I  saw 
the  fatal  trypanozome  wriggling  in  the  fluid. 
It  is  shaped  like  a  lizard  and  is  in  constant 
motion. 

A  dark  spot  appears  in  its  semi-transparent 
145 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

body,  and  if  you  watch  this  long  enough  you 
will  see  the  creature  divide  into  two  wrigglers 
at  this  point.  These  two  wriggle  along  through 
their  aeonian  moments  and  in  time  become 
by  the  same  process  four.  And  thus  I  saw 
one  link  in  the  disease  which  has  sent  two 
hundred  thousand  natives  of  Uganda  to  their 
last  reckoning. 

Perhaps  it  is  nature's  way  of  keeping  the 
balance,  now  that  civilized  nations  have  taken 
control  of  the  territory  and  have  practically 
done  away  with  the  intertribal  wars  and  the 
periodic  famines  that  used  to  devastate  the 
people. 

While  there  is  nothing  acutely  distressing 
about  this  manner  of  dying,  nothing  to  equal 
the  terrors  of  other  fatal  diseases  like  cancer 
or  tuberculosis,  there  is  something  peculiarly 
sinister  in  this  slow,  stealthy,  irresistible  ap- 
proach of  death,  whose  course  no  known 
remedy  can  stay  or  alter.  ^ 

*  The  following  extract  from  Lady  Lugard's  '*  Tropical  Depend- 
encies "  points  to  an  antiquity  for  sleeping-sickness  which  I 
have  not  seen  mentioned  elsewhere  in  the  accounts  of  the  disease. 

"  Ibn  Butata  who,  like  Ibn  Khaidun,  was  born  in  the  North 

146 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

But  the  tsetse  fly  is  only  one  of  the  entomo- 
logical vehicles  for  carrying  and  communicating 
diseases  in  tropical  Africa.  The  mosquito  is 
recognized  in  all  countries  as  an  industrious 
distributor  of  fever  germs,  and  nowhere  is  it 

of  Africa,  of  Arab  parents,  though  about  thirty  years  earlier 
(1303),  distinguished  himself  by  spending  twenty-five  years  in 
travel  which  extended  over  the  greater  part  of  the  known  world. 
.  .  .  The  Empire  of  Melle,  known  to  the  Arabs  as  '  The  Mellistine, 
which  rose  in  the  thirteenth  century  on  the  ruins  of  Ghana,  was  the 
first  of  the  great  black  Mohammedan  Kingdoms  of  the  Western 
Soudan  to  claim  intercourse  on  equal  terms  with  contemporary 
civilization.  .  .  .  The  curiosity  which  his  (Ibn  Butata's)  travels 
excited  at  the  Court  of  Fez  was,  it  is  said,  so  great  that  the 
Sultan  himself  wished  to  hear  his  adventures,  and  after  listening 
to  him  for  several  consecutive  nights,  ordered  that  the  whole 
should  be  drawn  up  and  made  into  a  book.  This  was  done,  and 
the  account,  as  it  now  exists,  was  finished  on  December  13,  1355. 
"This  may  be  regarded  as  the  period  at  which  Melle  reached 
its  greatest  prosperity.  Mansa  Suleiman  reigned  for  twenty- 
four  years,  but  was  succeeded  by  Mansa  Djata,  a  vicious  tyrant. 
...  He  died  finally  of  Sleeping  Sickness.  Ibn  Khaldun  de- 
scribes the  malady  as  being  very  common  in  his  country,  but 
as  this  is  the  first  instance  which  we  have  of  it  historically,  the 
symptoms  as  then  recognized  are  perhaps  worth  noting.  It 
was  specially  apt,  Ibn  Khaldun  says,  to  attack  the  upper  classes 
of  the  people.  It  began  by  periodic  attacks,  and  finally  brought 
the  patient  to  such  a  state  that  he  could  not  remain  awake  for  a 
moment.  It  then  declared  itself  permanently,  and  ended  sooner 
or  later  in  death.  The  King  Djata  suffered  for  two  years  from 
periodic  attacks  before  he  died  in  1374.  This  practically  ended 
the  Kingdom  of  Melle." 

149 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

more  dreaded  or  guarded  against  than  in 
Africa.  No  experienced  dweller  there  will 
sleep  except  under  a  mosquito-netting,  no 
matter  how  hot  the  night,  while  the  very  care- 
ful take  a  dose  of  quinine  once  in  nine  or  ten 
days,  to  prevent  any  latent  microbe  from 
developing.  It  is  the  theory  there  that  to  take 
quinine  after  the  fever  has  asserted  itself  will 
turn  the  African  malarial  fever  into  that  more 
serious  disease  known  as  blackwater  fever. 
The  African  fevers  have  the  most  distressing 
way  of  fastening  on  their  victims.  After  a 
long  intermittent  siege  of  them  the  sufferer  may 
think  himself  immune,  and  then  find  that  his 
immunity  is  only  in  Africa;  that  directly  he 
leaves  the  Dark  Continent  he  becomes  sub- 
ject to  recurrent  attacks  of  fever  which  quite 
disable  him  for  life  anywhere  else  —  a  most 
distressing  discovery! 

Some  time  ago  a  Belgian  official  appointed 
by  his  government  to  take  charge  of  a  part 
of  the  Belgian  possessions  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  Congo  thought  that  his  new  post  could 
be  more  easily  reached  by  passing  through 
150 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

British  East  Africa  and  Uganda.  So  he  and 
his  wife  arranged  for  their  long  caravan  trip, 
which  was  necessary  after  leaving  Lake  Vic- 
toria, and  had  constructed  a  portable  room 
made  of  wire  netting.  In  this  they  proposed 
to  live  when  not  on  the  march.  Besides  the 
door  there  was  a  small  opening  through  which 
their  food  was  to  be  passed  to  them.  The  whole 
structure  could  be  taken  to  pieces  and  carried  by 
porters.  In  this  way  the  Belgian  travellers 
hoped  to  escape  the  fever.  In  spite  of  this, 
how^ever,  the  man  had  a  slight  attack  of  fever, 
while  his  wife  was  dangerously  ill  with  it. 

But  the  mosquito  is  not  the  only  carrier  of 
fever.  There  is  a  disease  called  tic  fever  be- 
cause it  is  given  by  tics ;  while  the  jigger  gives 
still  another  kind  of  fever.  The  difference  in 
these  fevers  is  more  in  the  microbe  of  each 
than  in  any  outward  manifestation  of  the 
diseases,  and  a  person  may  have  two  or  three 
different  kinds  of  fever  at  the  same  time, 
which  is  very  exhausting  to  the  system,  pro- 
ducing an  anemic  condition  hard  to  combat. 

Although  as  a  visitor  only  the  bright  and 
151 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

cheerful  side  of  life  was  shown  to  me  in  Uganda, 
the  other  side  was  sufficiently  evident.  Disease 
in  many  forms  menaces  every  resident  there. 
No  one  entirely  escapes  fever.  This  is  accepted 
with  a  plucky  resignation  which  is  the  outgrowth 
of  a  certain  fatalism  which  seems  to  be  born 
and  bred  in  life  in  tropics. 

Besides  this  special  curse  of  Africa,  other 
spectres  haunt  the  European  residents.  Small- 
pox walks  the  land.  The  natives  have  it  so 
commonly  that  they  often  go  about  their  work 
covered  with  its  horrid  manifestations.  An 
officer  in  the  Public  Works  Department  told 
me  that  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  have  a 
hand  held  out  to  him  for  pay  covered  with 
smallpox.  I  myself  saw  a  tall,  gaunt  native 
stalking  along  the  highway,  in  and  out  of  the 
crowds,  with  the  gray  scabs  of  the  disease  all 
over  his  dusky  skin.  I  was  the  only  one  who 
skipped  to  the  other  side  to  avoid  him.  While 
Europeans  do  not  often  catch  this  from  the 
natives,  there  was  a  case  of  malignant  or 
'*  black  "  smallpox  in  the  house  next  to  ours, 
the  victim  being  a  very  good-looking,  yoimg 
152 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

Englishwoman.  She  had,  during  a  violent 
rain-storm,  taken  refuge  in  a  native  hut  or  kraal, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  caught  the  disease 
there.  There  is  only  one  resident  physician 
in  Entebbe  to  attend  both  Europeans  and 
natives.  He  took  care  of  the  sick  woman  and 
of  all  other  patients  too.  Two  Gray  Sisters 
were  brought  down  from  a  CathoHc  sisterhood 
at  Kampala  to  nurse  her.  Every  day  in  their 
heavy,  fluttering  draperies  they  took  their 
airing  on  the  road  in  front  of  our  house.  There 
was  no  vaccine  nearer  than  Marseilles.  Never 
have  I  seen  anything  Hke  the  serene  courage 
with  which  the  residents  of  Entebbe  accepted 
the  situation  —  it  almost  amounted  to  indiffer- 
ence. Before  it  my  mother  and  I  were  obliged 
to  hide  and  stifle  as  best  we  might  the  panic 
which  beset  us.  How  many  times  at  night  I 
woke  suffering  from  a  fully  developed  case  of 
smallpox!  Every  headache  haunted  me,  until 
I  learned  that  backache  was  the  precursor  of  the 
disease. 

If  I  ventured  to  speak  of  it  I  was  always  met 
with  the  tranquil  rejoinder,  "  Oh,  I  don't  think 
153 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

you  or  I  will  get  it  —  and  if  we  do  —  it  is  kis- 
met." 

Bubonic  plague  is  chronic  throughout  East 
Africa,  though  it  is  confined  to  the  native 
population. 

Even  given  the  best  conditions,  there  is  no 
denying  that  a  long  residence  in  tropical  Africa 
has  a  disintegrating  effect,  both  physically 
and  mentally,  on  the  white  races.  It  saps  the 
vigor,  rendering  bodies  anemic  and  minds 
torpid.  One  of  its  most  peculiar  effects  is  the 
destruction  of  the  memory. 

"  Oh,  that  terrible  Africa!  "  said  an  English- 
woman to  me  on  our  way  down  the  East  Coast 
as  we  sat  on  deck  one  afternoon  looking  at  the 
pink  sands  of  Somaliland  on  the  western  hori- 
zon. "  Already  I  am  losing  hold  —  I  am  for- 
getting —  forgetting  —  things  that  I  want  to 
remember." 

The  mind  grows  cloudy.  The  sense  of  pro- 
portion is  affected.  Trifles  assume  undue  im- 
portance. It  is  the  wholesome  custom  in  the 
English  service  to  allow  leave  once  in  so  often. 
Few  stay  in  East  or  Central  Africa  more  than 
154 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

two  years  at  a  stretch.  At  the  end  of  this 
period  a  leave  of  from  three  to  six  months  is 
granted.  It  is  a  wise  generosity,  as  it  is  only 
in  this  way  that  the  efficiency  of  their  official 
force  can  be  preserved. 

The  universal  custom  of  whiskey  drinking 
is  much  to  be  deprecated.  It  is  not  that  it  is 
ever  taken  to  excess,  but  it  is  considered  by 
many  to  be  necessary  to  counteract  the  de- 
bilitating effect  of  the  country  by  this  stimu- 
lant. The  climate  creates  thirst.  Water 
is  not  considered  as  a  beverage,  therefore 
whiskey  and  soda  is  always  forthcoming  — 
very  little  at  a  time,  but  constantly.  This  is 
bound  in  the  long  run  to  tell  on  the  system 
weakened  by  unaccustomed  climatic  conditions. 
Many  a  breakdown  attributed  to  the  tropics 
has  been  accelerated,  if  not  largely  caused, 
by  this  whiskey-drinking  habit.  Women  do  not, 
of  course,  share  in  it.  Their  drink  is  lime  juice 
and  soda,  or  claret  and  soda=  They  are,  there- 
fore, much  less  prone  to  the  kidney  and  liver 
troubles  that  afflict  the  men  in  tropical  Africa. 

Nor  are  these  drawbacks  the  only  ones  faced 
166 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

by  those  who  are  carrying  on  the  work  of  open- 
ing up  that  remote  region.  No  matter  how  hu- 
manely, nor  with  how  much  consideration  and 
justice  the  natives  are  treated,  that  handful 
of  Europeans  living  among  those  thousands 
of  savages,  offspring  of  fierce  races,  whose 
chief  joy  for  uncounted  centuries  has  been 
bloodshed,  are  in  more  or  less  constant  peril. 
Underneath  the  seemingly  peaceful  surface 
lie  stored  up  quantities  of  deep  and  abiding 
racial  animosities  which  might  flare  up  at  any 
moment,  started  by  an  error  of  judgment 
on  the  part  of  the  English,  or  by  a  fancied 
wrong. 

On  the  water-front  at  Entebbe,  at  the  foot 
of  the  sloping  green  fields,  stands  a  group  of 
warehouses  encircled  by  a  high  wall.  There 
now  are  stored  the  various  supplies  of  the 
military  arm  of  the  state,  guarded  by  tall 
Sihk  sentries »  But  the  ulterior  object  of  the 
structure  is  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  women 
and  children  of  Entebbe  in  case  of  an  uprising. 
Nearly  a  thousand  miles  inland  from  the  sea,  in  a 
tropical  wilderness  peopled  by  savage  tribes, 
156 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

the  situation  of  that  settlement,  as  well  as  of 
the  many  scattered  stations  in  Uganda,  is  one 
of  great  isolation  in  case  of  any  trouble  or 
revolt.  Their  very  sense  of  security  is  a  menace 
to  the  European  residents. 

Nor  are  these  pathological  and  warlike  perils 
the  only  drawbacks  to  life  in  Uganda.  The 
necessities  of  life,  if  attainable  at  all,  are  ex- 
tremely costly;  while  all  the  luxuries,  so  dear 
especially  to  women,  are  only  to  be  obtained 
with  great  difficulty. 

The  very  throb  which  comes  to  each  heart 
at  the  boom  of  the  gun  signalling  the  arrival 
of  the  steamer  bringing  news  from  the  outer 
world  is  testimony  to  the  sense  of  lonely  isolation 
of  the  place„  How  eagerly  are  the  newspapers, 
periodicals,  and  books  exchanged!  With  what 
longing  many  a  cultivated  man  and  woman 
reads  of  the  new  music  he  or  she  may  not  hear ; 
the  new  pictures,  the  new  plays,  all  the  doings 
and  progress  of  the  great  world  so  far  away! 

The  fact  that  the  climate  of  the  tropics  makes 
it  impossible  for  children  to  live  there  after  they 
are  three  or  four  years  old  is  one  of  th^  special 
157 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

disadvantages  of  family  life.  To  bear  children 
for  others  to  rear  is  a  heavy  cross  to  many  a 
woman  in  that  part  of  the  world. 

To  enumerate  some  of  the  lesser  annoyances 
of  life  in  Uganda,  I  must  return  for  a  moment 
to  the  tic  and  the  jigger.  Like  sleeping-sick- 
ness, they  both  come  from  the  Congo,  and  pre- 
sumably originally  were  brought  there  from 
South  America,  where  both  are  known.  They 
are  also  creeping  eastward  with  an  easily 
measured  tread,  and  the  English  authorities 
are  taking  what  precautions  they  can  to  prevent 
them  from  getting  to  India,  where  they  could 
work  irreparable  damage.  Besides  carrying 
a  fever  germ  the  jigger  is  in  itself  a  most  obnox- 
ious and  dangerous  pest.  Almost  infinitesimal 
in  size,  it  creeps  in  under  toe  and  finger  nails 
or  into  creases  in  the  bottom  of  the  feet,  and, 
burrowing  into  the  skin,  lays  its  eggs  in  a  little 
sac.  These  in  time  swell  and  hatch  out  and 
then  the  fun  begins  —  festering,  suppuration, 
blood-poisoning  and  all  manner  of  mutilations 
ensue.  It  used  to  be  a  common  thing  to  see 
natives  minus  toes  or  fingers  as  a  result  of  the 
168 


Lake  Ferry  at  Entebbe 


Ilic  Scasc  Inlands 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

inroads  of  this  insect.  It  is  like  sleeping-sickness, 
a  plague  of  recent  years,  and  when  it  first  ap- 
peared was  not  recognized.  Now  it  is  well 
known,  and  the  natives  are  so  skilful  in  extract- 
ing the  little  sac  before  it  has  hatched  out  that 
serious  infection  is  growing  rarer.  It  is  an 
interesting  sight  to  see  a  native  boy  picking  out 
a  jigger's  nest  with  a  needle.  From  personal 
experience  I  can  say  that  so  skilful  are  these 
boys  that  they  do  it  without  causing  any  pain 
or  shedding  a  drop  of  blood  —  though  the  hole 
left  in  the  bottom  of  my  foot  looked  as  wide  as  a 
barn  door  and  as  deep  as  a  well.  Fragile  as  the 
sac  was,  it  was  extracted  without  breaking  it.  It 
was  brown  in  color,  soft,  and  the  size  of  a  small  pea. 

All  insects  in  Central  Africa  are  called  doo- 
doos,  and  it  is  supposed  to  be  advisable  to  wear 
white  shoes  and  stockings  when  out  walking, 
as  the  doo-doos  are  more  visible  on  white  and 
can  be  more  easily  circumvented. 

In  spite  of  the  entomological  perils  of  outings 

in  Uganda,  I  shall  never  forget  the  charms  of 

the  walks  and  rides  about  Entebbe.    Mounted  on 

one  of  three  horses  the  place  boasts  —  a  sturdy 

161 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

gray  pony  —  I  have  taken  many  a  ride  through 
the  dense  tropical  forests,  where  the  horses 
have  to  go  single  file  through  undergrowth 
sometimes  reaching  to  their  shoulders.  Strange 
trees  grow  in  tangled  masses,  strangled  by 
huge  lianes  or  vines.  Overhead  an  occasional 
troop  of  monkeys  would  go  scampering  and 
chattering  along  those  wonderful  highways  of 
the  Banderlog  people.  Every  now  and  then 
we  would  catch  a  sight  of  the  gray  African 
parrot  with  crimson  tail,  fluttering  in  uncertain 
flight  from  shade  to  shade ;  or  some  more  gor- 
geous bird,  like  the  exquisitely  tinted  violet 
plaintain-eater,  flashed  across  the  line  of  vision. 
Suddenly  would  spring  up  in  the  path,  as  if 
from  the  earth  itself,  one  of  the  silent,  dark, 
lithe  natives,  draped  perhaps  in  a  strip  of  bark 
cloth  or  in  some  square  of  gaudy  colors,  prob- 
ably, if  it  were  a  woman,  carrying,  at  what 
seemed  an  impossible  angle,  on  the  head  a  round 
earthen- ware  jar  of  water.  If  it  was  a  man  he 
would  more  likely  be  playing  one  of  the  almost 
soundless  little  native  musical  instruments,  or 
carrying  bows  and  arrows,  or  a  spear.  Overhead 
162 


THE    SLEEPING-SICKNESS 

and  underfoot  was  a  lush  growth  of  vegetation 
suggestive  of  centuries  of  damp  heat;  from 
the  forest  on  either  side  came  strange,  stifling 
odors,  as  if  the  trees  were  sweating.  Suddenly 
the  woods  would  grow  thinner ;  we  would  come 
to  a  grove  of  palms,  through  whose  tall  stems 
glowed  the  equatorial  sunset,  deep  crimson, 
which  we  might  not  stop  to  admire,  as  the 
dark  falls  swiftly  and  we  had  to  take  the  short- 
est way  home  to  get  there  before  black  night 
overtook  us.  There  is  nothing  as  black  as  an 
African  night,  and  I  think  that  it  is  because 
the  earth,  being  a  deep  red,  offers  no  reflection 
to  the  faint  starlight,  such  as  we  get  in  other 
lands.  Instead  it  swallows  up  what  slight 
glow  there  may  be,  and  gives  to  the  darkness  a 
dense,  velvety  quality  not  to  be  found  any- 
where else.  Overhead  the  stars  glare  more 
brilliantly  than  in  northern  latitudes,  but  they 
seem  to  cast  no  light,  and  the  night  is  palpable, 
suffocating,  appalling,  and  filled  with  a  nameless 
horror  which  is  quite  indescribable. 


163 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    BAGANDA 

A  LTHOUGH  our  stay  in  Entebbe  was  too 
^  short  to  make  anything  like  a  thorough 
study  of  the  country  of  which  it  was  the  eastern 
outlet,  I  soon  grew  familiar  with  the  different 
African  types  to  be  met  with  in  the  throngs  that 
daily  filled  the  broad,  red  highway.  I  could 
readily  distinguish  the  Nubians,  who  had  come 
down  from  the  north.  They  were,  as  a  rule, 
much  blacker  than  the  Baganda,  while  their 
hair  was  curled  into  tight,  close  ringlets.  Their 
general  effect  was  of  an  inferior  type.  But  the 
Baganda  are  superior  to  most  African  tribes. 
They  are  not  so  tall  or  fine  in  physique  as  the 
Kavirondo  or  Masai,  but  they  are  well  formed 
and  their  features  are  much  better,  approaching 
the  Egyptian  type.  In  color  they  are  a  warm 
chocolate  brown.  The  women  are  small  of 
164 


THE    BAGANDA 

stature,  and  in  youth  deliciously  plump  and 
rounded  in  outline.  They  are  a  gentle,  courte- 
ous people.  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  who  travelled 
much  among  them  and  knew  them  well,  calls 
them  "  the  Japanese  of  Central  Africa."  They 
do  not  scarify,  tattoo,  nor  mutilate  their  bodies 
in  any  way,  and  among  the  men  have  always 
been  most  scrupulous  in  regard  to  the  decency 
of  their  attire,  being  particular  to  drape  the 
bodies  completely.  They  incline  to  a  very 
classic  style  in  the  folds  of  their  garments. 
For  some  reason,  which  I  never  could  work  out, 
the  women  are  obliged  to  wear  their  draperies 
brought  around  under  their  arms,  leaving 
shoulders  and  arms  bare.  Not  many  years 
ago  there  was  a  death  penalty  for  any 
woman  who  brought  hers  over  her  shoulders. 
However,  when  the  first  white  traveller  visited 
Uganda,  the  female  valets  of  King  M'tesa  went 
stark  naked  about  the  palace  at  Mengo. 

The  legend    of    the  country  is  that  its  first 

resident  was  Kintu,  a  man  who  came  from  the 

north,  bringing  his  wife  and  one  cow,  one  goat, 

one  sheep,  one  chicken,  one   banana,  and  one 

165 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

sweet  potato.  In  less  than  a  twelvemonth 
all  of  these,  beginning  with  his  wife,  increased 
and  multiplied,  so  that  in  a  few  years  the  coun- 
try w^as  settled  entirely  with  the  descendants  of 
Kintu,  living  off  the  produce  which  sprang  up 
from  the  live  stock,  chicken,  banana,  and  sweet 
potato  which  he  first  introduced.  Having  so 
successfully  started  the  nation,  he  and  his 
prolific  wife  wandered  away  and  disappeared. 
To  this  day  there  are  natives  who  look  for  their 
return  at  some  great  national  crisis. 

Sir  Harry  Johnston  gives  a  more  probable, 
though  less  picturesque,  account  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Uganda.  He  w^rites  that  a  mighty 
hunter  called  Muganda  (meaning  ''  brother  ") 
first  came  from  the  north  and  by  his  prowess 
collected  followers  and  established  a  nation, 
giving  his  name  to  the  country,  which  he  called 
Uganda.  The  language  is  known  as  Luganda, 
the  individual  as  Buganda,  the  tribe  as  Ba- 
ganda,  as  before  related. 

The  first  visitor  from  the  outer  world  to 
come  into  the  Uganda  was  a  Baluch  soldier, 
named  Isau  bin  Hussein,  of  Zanzibar,  who, 
166 


THE    BAGANDA 

in  1849  or  '50*  flying  from  his  creditors,  finally 
reached  the  court  of  Suna,  King  of  Uganda.    On 
account  of  his  beard  they  named  him  *'  Muza- 
gaya  "  (*'  The  Hairy  One  "),  and  he  became  a 
power  in  the  land.     Through  him  the  people 
there  first  heard  of  the  Arabs   and  of  white 
men,  of  whose  existence  only  vague  reports  — 
treated  as  fairy  tales  —  had  hitherto  reached 
them.    The  rumor  arose  among  them  that  they 
too  were  originally  descended  from  a  white  race. 
Their  legends  recorded  that  in  the  days  of  their 
first  occupation  their  skins    were    lighter  and 
their  hair  longer.    The  rumor  ended  in  a  proph- 
ecy that  from  the  northeast  should  come  a  white 
race  who  would  conquer  them.     So  when  years 
later  Bishop  Hannington  sent  word  from  the 
country  northeast  of  them  to  ask  if  he  might 
enter  their  territory  by  that  route,  permission 
was    refused    him.      When    he    persisted    and 
pushed  on  and  into  Uganda  he  met  his  death, 
for  they  thought  he  was  but  the  precursor  of 
the  dreaded  invasion,  which  did  indeed  eventu- 
ally come,  thus  fulfilling  the  prophecy. 

The  language  is  most  melodious,  especially 
167 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

when  spoken  by  the  soft,  rich  voices  of  the 
Baganda.  Their  salutation  is  quite  elaborate. 
I  tried  to  learn  it,  but  never  could  quite  grasp 
the  soft  and  often  repeated  vowels  and  grunts: 

"Otiano!" 

"Otia!" 

"Otiano!** 

"Aa!" 

"  M'm!  " 
and  so  on,  with  brilliant  smiles,  in  this  manner 
would  the  bolder  natives  greet  me  on  the  broad 
Kampala  Road. 

What  a  place  this  road  was!  The  low  mud 
houses,  or  more  pretentious  corrugated  iron 
ones,  faced  each  other  on  either  side  of  an 
enormously  broad  highway,  whose  red  earthen 
surface  was  hard  beaten  by  much  passing. 
The  courts  were  held  in  a  comfortable  building 
at  the  main  comer,  where  the  Front  Road 
meets  the  Kampala  Road.  It  was  a  one-story 
structure,  with  verandas  on  the  east  front  and 
windows  on  all  four  sides,  open  to  the  breeze. 
It  was  guarded  by  askaris  or  native  police  in 
khaki  uniforms. 

168 


THE    BAGANDA 

A  little  beyond  the  fort  was  the  hospital,  a 
charming  building,  whose  big,  airy  rooms  were 
devoted  to  the  use  of  such  officials  and  their 
wives  as  were  too  ill  to  be  properly  cared  for 
at  their  own  homes.  Behind  the  hospital,  higher 
up  on  the  hillside,  was  the  native  hospital,  in- 
cluding the  house  where  the  sufferers  from 
sleeping-sickness  were  treated.  Next  door  to 
the  lower  main  building  was  the  government 
laboratory,  described  in  the  chapter  on  sleeping- 
sickness.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  road 
was  the  rest-house,  a  long,  low  building,  where 
those  who  come  in  from  safari  (caravan  trip) 
could  "  bed  down,"  and  get  shelter. 

The  rainy  seasons  in  Uganda  are  from 
September  to  November  and  from  March  to 
May.  July  is  the  driest  month  of  the  year. 
Then  the  roads  dry  up  and  pulverize  into  the 
fine,  red  dust,  which  permeates  clothes  and 
houses.  We  arrived  a  little  late  for  the  heaviest 
rains,  though  we  got  some  downpours.  But  we 
had  no  samples  of  the  terrific  thunder-storms 
which  are  such  a  menace  to  that  country,  for 
which  I  am  devoutly  thankful.  We  could  see 
169 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

fierce  ones,  however,  pursuing  each  other 
around  the  wide  horizon.  It  is  the  theory  of 
Entebbeans  that  the  extensive  cutting  down 
and  thinning  out  of  the  forests  on  their  penin- 
sula has  had  an  effect  rendering  that  particular 
spot  less  liable  to  these  electric  storms.  The  de- 
scriptions of  Sir  Harry  Johnston  and  other 
African  travellers  of  these  thunder-storms 
quite  reconcile  one  to  their  omission. 

The  wide  Front  Road  is  bordered  on  one  side 
by  high  hedges,  through  which  one  catches 
glimpses  of  lovely,  flowering  gardens  and  cosy 
looking  bungalows.  While  on  the  other  side 
the  land  slopes  in  broad  green  fields  to  the 
lake,  Entebbe  cattle,  humped  back  and  wide 
horned,  graze  on  these  meadows.  Tall,  thick- 
foliaged  incense-trees  grow  each  in  solitary 
state  in  scattered  clumps,  while  ant-hills 
of  varying  sizes  and  shapes  further  diversify 
their  grassy  sweep.  Half-way  down  the  Front 
Road  are  the  tennis  courts,  where  every  after- 
noon the  men  and  women  of  the  station  meet 
to  play.  Further  down  the  hill  the  cricket- 
groimd  lies  enclosed  by  a  fence  with  a  club-house 
170 


THE    BAGANDA 

to  the  west,  where,  from  a  wide  veranda, 
lookers-on  can  watch  the  weekly  match. 

The  Front  Road  is  bordered  by  an  orderly 
row  of  lime  and  orange  trees.  At  its  east  end 
the  tall  trees  which  shade  a  beautiful  residence 
and  garden,  planned  and  built  by  Colonel 
Coles,  are  full  of  chattering,  scampering  mon- 
keys, among  which  my  brother-in-law  pointed 
out  to  me  a  colobus  monkey,  white-faced  and 
plumy  tailed.  A  peculiarity  of  this  species  of 
monkey  is  that  it  has  no  thumb,  its  place  being 
marked,  if  at  all,  by  a  minute  excrescence  bear- 
ing a  tiny  nail.  It  is  a  species  only  known  in 
Africa,  and  its  name  is  the  Greek  for  "  muti- 
lated." 

The  currency  of  Uganda  is  that  of  East 
Africa,  the  Indian  currency  of  rupees  and  annas. 
But  the  natives  still  use  the  strings  of  cowry 
shells  which  have  been  their  money  from  time 
immemorial.  These  cowry  shells  are  brought 
from  the  coast  of  Zanzibar,  and  in  pre-railroad 
days,  when  they  were  brought  up  by  overland 
caravans,  represented  more  of  human  labor 
than  they  do  now.  The  Baganda  wear  them 
171 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

about  their  necks,  and  accept  them  in  pay  for 
work. 

The  basket  work  of  the  Baganda  is  one  of  the 
specialties  of  the  country.  So  finely  can  they 
weave  that  they  can  make  bottles  which  will 
hold  milk.  They  also  make  a  sort  of  pottery, 
in  most  artistic  shapes,  ornamented  by  designs 
of  a  classic  effect,  and  finished  with  a  rich 
black  glaze.  This  pottery  is  unfortunately  so 
friable  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  transport 
it  without  breaking  it.  They  also  make  pipes 
of  this  same  pottery  in  most  graceful  forms » 

Of  the  harp  of  Uganda,  Sir  Harry  Johnston 
writes  that  it  is  "  interesting  because  its  iden- 
tical form  is  repeated  in  the  paintings  of  ancient 
Egypt,  where  the  instnmient  must  have  had 
its  origin.*' 

Besides  this  harp  they  have  lutes,  and  an 
instrument  like  a  xylophone,  and  various  kinds 
of  tom-toms,  the  native  drums  which  throb 
from  one  end  of  Africa  to  the  other  with 
savage  rhythm,  through  forests  and  across 
plains. 

The  Baganda,  lying  in  a  remote  and  inac- 
172 


Lender"  Women  (Nubian) 


THE    BAGANDA 

cessible  region,  were  not  so  devastated  as 
other  tribes  by  the  slave-trade  which  flourished 
so  many  centuries  in  East  Africa.  They  have 
welcomed  the  apparent  advantages  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  have  shown  a  keener  appreciation  of 
these  advantages  than  other  East  African  na- 
tives, but  they  have  at  the  same  time  clung 
closely  to  their  original  organization,  maintain- 
ing their  court  and  king  at  Mengo  (or  Kampala, 
as  the  European  quarter  of  the  settlement 
is  called). 

At  this  point  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to 
tell  the  story  of  the  murder  of  Harry  Gait, 
which  was  absorbing  attention  while  we  were 
in  Entebbe,  where  the  murderers  were  being 
tried. 

On  May  19th,  1905,  Harry  St.  George  Gait, 
who  was  acting  sub-commissioner  in  a  distant 
district  in  Uganda,  was  murdered  by  a  native 
at  Ibanda  camp.  The  news,  brought  by  runners, 
was  a  great  shock  to  the  foreigners  in  Uganda 
and  East  Africa. 

Before  going  into  the  details  of  the  incident 
two  factors  must  be  considered  —  significant, 
175 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

underlying,  racial  characteristics.  The  first 
is  the  passion  some  young  Englishmen  have 
for  savage  solitudes,  far  from  the  madding 
crowd.  It  is  this  intense  love  of  utter  personal 
freedom,  and  sense  of  personal  power,  com- 
bined with  a  real  joy  in  danger,  which  qualifies 
so  many  of  them  to  go  alone  to  wild  and  inac- 
cessible regions,  among  wild  tribes,  and  there 
establish  and  maintain  order.  Men  who  have 
once  tasted  this  life  are  apt  forever  afterwards 
to  find  civilization  and  its  conventional  re- 
strictions irksome.  To  us  the  settlement  of 
Entebbe  seemed  the  very  outpost  of  the  world. 
To  those  officials  who  came  from  the  interior, 
where  they  probably  had  not  seen  a  white 
person  for  months,  it  seemed  next  door  to 
London,  and  its  strict  observance  of  social 
customs  soon  drove  these  lovers  of  freedom 
back  to  their  solitudes,  rejoicing;  while  many 
of  those  officials  whose  duties  kept  them  at 
Entebbe  sighed  for  the  liberty  of  remote  sta- 
tions. 

We   Americans   are,    as   a   rule,    gregarious, 
lovers  of  cities,  and  frequenters  of  highways. 
176 


THE    BAGANDA 

The  impulse  which  enables  Great  Britain 
to  cope  successfully  with  wildernesses  is 
almost  lacking  in  our  make-up,  and  I 
never  got  over  the  wonder  of  the  spectacle 
of  these  splendid  types  of  British  youth, 
gently  born  and  bred,  delighting  in  their 
lonely  and  often  perilous  strife  with  savage 
conditions. 

And,  to  go  on  to  the  second  racial  trait; 
there  is  that  in  the  wild  peoples  among  whom 
the  English  live  in  Africa  which  is  always  elud- 
ing outsiders,  a  certain  profound  racial  hatred 
and  antipathy,  that  rarely  shows  on  the  sur- 
face, but  which  exists  nevertheless,  and  mani- 
fests itself  in  such  acts  as  the  murder  of  Harry 
Gait.  The  natives  of  East  Africa  and  of  Uganda 
resent  the  British  dominion.  They  cannot  shake 
it  off.  They  live  in  apparent  amity,  and  they 
try  to  enjoy  a  civilization  which  is  antipathetic 
to  them.  They  hate  work  and  they  love 
fighting.  The  English  force  them  to  toil  and 
have  almost  abolished  their  bloody  intertribal 
wars.  Apparent  peace  reigns,  but  the  in- 
stincts and  tendencies  of  savages  can  only 
177 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

be  checked,  not  altered,  in  a  couple  of  genera- 
tions. 

Harry  St.  George  Gait  was  a  fine  specimen  of 
Anglo-Saxon  manhood ;  a  plucky  young  fellow, 
a  good  shot,  a  good  friend,  what  would  be  called 
"  a  good  all  around  sport;  "  and  had  a  widowed 
mother  and  sister  dependent  upon  him.  He 
was  more  than  usually  popular  with  the  natives 
among  whom  he  lived.  Yet  on  the  above  date 
as  he  sat  in  front  of  his  grass  hut  a  yotmg 
native,  named  Lutakara,  came  up  and,  without 
warning,  stabbed  him,  running  a  spear  into  his 
lungs  near  his  heart.  Gait  was  alone  at  the 
time  and  according  to  the  report  of  his  own 
native  servants  ran  to  the  cook's  hut  and, 
gasping  out  that  he  had  been  killed,  fell  to  the 
groimd,  the  blood  gushing  from  his  mouth 
and  from  the  wound.  He  died  in  a  few  minutes, 
far  from  his  kind,  in  an  African  forest  with 
only  African  savages  about  him. 

The  murderer  was  in  his  turn  killed  almost 

immediately  by  two  other  natives,  Gabrieli  and 

Isaka,  and  therein  lies  the  mystery  of  the  affair, 

for  evidence  was  brought  out  at  the  trial  which 

178 


THE    BAGANDA 

proved  that  the  slayers  of  Lutakara  had  them- 
selves incited  him  to  the  deed.  Their  motive 
in  doing  away  with  him  was  to  abolish  his 
evidence  and  to  establish  themselves  with  the 
English  as  avengers  of  British  wrongs. 

Some  years  before  Lutakara's  brother  had 
died,  supposedly  from  an  impure  vaccination 
performed  by  an  English  doctor.  The  conspira- 
tors are  thought  to  have  so  worked  on  the 
surviving  brother's  feelings  as  to  have  incited 
him  to  revenge  by  murder.  Gait  was  the  nearest 
white  man.  He  was  alone  and  accessible;  so 
the  deed  was  done.  The  motive  of  Gabrieli  and 
Isaka  and  others  working  with  them  is,  however, 
further  to  seek.  With  some  the  theory  was 
that  their  inspiration  came  by  indirect  channels 
from  the  court  of  Uganda  at  Kampala,  where 
the  yoimg  king  sits  surrounded  by  his  chiefs; 
nominally  under  the  protection  of  England; 
practically  under  her  direction  and  suzerainty. 
But  this  could  not  be  proved.  All  the  mystery 
of  the  Dark  Continent  shrouded  the  case 
beyond  the  proved  complicity  of  Gabrieli, 
Isaka  and  some  minor  actors  in  the  drama. 
179 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

There  are  certain  workings  of  the  African  mind 
which  no  white  man  can  follow  or  fathom. 
A  glint  here  and  there  shows  a  hidden  world 
unknown.  These  childlike,  black  races  have 
some  savage  potentialities,  which  give  a  sinister 
quality  to  their  naivete.  Friendly  as  they  may 
appear  to  be,  devoted  as  they  certainly  are  in 
individual  instances,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  black 
races  do  not  like  the  white  people.  The  tenure  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  in  Central  Africa  is  rather  like 
that  of  the  animal  trainer  in  a  cage  full  of 
trained  lions  and  tigers. 

The  trial  of  those  connected  with  the  murder 
of  Mr.  Gait  was  held  in  the  High  Court  of 
Uganda,  sitting  in  Entebbe  during  our  stay 
there,  and  we  were  much  interested  in  it. 
It  was  tried  under  Indian  laws  and  court  pro- 
cedure, so  there  was  no  jury.  The  lawyers  on 
both  sides  presented  their  cases.  The  judge 
summed  up  the  evidence  and  pronounced 
sentence. 

The  court-house  is  a  long,  one-story  building, 
with  projecting  roofs,  and  stands  on  a  fine, 
overlooking  site.  At  one  end  of  the  large,  bare 
180 


THE    BAGANDA 

court-room  the  judge  sat,  in  wig  and  gown,  on 
a  raised  platform.  The  prisoners  in  wooden, 
open  pens  stood  below  him,  to  the  left,  guarded 
by  native  soldiers  in  khaki  uniforms.  To  the 
right  sat  the  lawyers,  also  in  gowns.  One  of  the 
prisoners,  Isaka,  had  a  fine  head,  almost  classic 
in  lines.  The  others  were  of  the  ordinary 
Waganda  type,  clean-limbed,  not  large,  nor  very 
black.  The  court-room  was  packed  with  a 
large  percentage  of  natives  among  the  onlook- 
ers. The  windows  on  all  four  sides  were  open, 
and  warm  noonday  breezes  came  through,  while 
outside  more  natives  could  be  seen  lounging 
about,  and  beyond  lay  the  green  fields  and 
woods  sloping  to  the  broad,  glassy  stretches 
of  the  lake. 

The  conduct  of  the  case  was  exemplary. 
Each  side  was  stated  clearly  and  briefly.  Wit- 
nesses were  examined  carefully,  by  means  of 
an  interpreter,  due  respect  being  given  to  even 
the  most  trivial  evidence ;  and  there  was  much 
that  was  childish,  as  all  the  witnesses  were 
natives,  and  they  wandered  and  became  in- 
volved in  their  testimony.  But  out  of  it  all 
181 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

a  clear  case  was  evolved  on  which  the  judge 
based  his  summing  up  and  sentence.  The  latter 
was  hanging  for  the  two  principals  and  im- 
prisonment for  varying  terms  for  the  other 
prisoners. 

The  serious  dignity  which  characterized 
the  trial,  the  conciseness  with  which  each  side 
presented  its  case,  the  lack  of  forensic  display, 
together  with  the  care  for  justice,  made  a  deep 
impression  on  me.  We  Americans  would  have 
been  more  dramatic  in  arriving  at  similar  ends. 

As  a  parting  gift  my  brother-in-law  gave  me 
the  kiboko,  or  rhinoceros  hide  whip,  which  Mr. 
Gait  always  carried  with  him  through  African 
solitudes,  swamps,  and  jungles,  which  was 
hanging  on  his  wrist  when  he  was  murdered, 
and  which  now  hangs  in  my  room.  I  never 
knew  Mr.  Gait,  but  the  sight  of  that  rude 
leathern  thong  often  brings  up,  not  only  the 
vision  of  that  brave  young  Englishman,  the 
only  son  of  a  widow,  but  of  all  the  other  plucky 
fellows  who  are  out  there  in  those  wildernesses 
working  out  the  destiny  of  the  Dark  Continent. 
The  pay  they  get  is  small,  the  praise  they  get 
182 


THE    BAGANDA 

is  hardly  larger,  but  the  joy  that  is  theirs  in 
the  work,  in  the  loneliness,  and  in  the  danger 
is  exceeding,  and  worth  all  the  rest  put 
together. 


18S 


CHAPTER   VIII 

LEAVING   ENTEBBE 

TT  was  with  a  real  pang  that  I  looked  my  last 
'■"  on  the  wooded  hills  and  green  fields  of 
Entebbe.  As  the  steamer,  the  Sybil,  was  start- 
ing early  in  the  morning,  we  went  on  board 
the  night  before.  The  ride  down  in  the  gharries 
through  the  fragrant  darkness,  with  swinging 
lanterns,  was  a  quick  one,  as  the  way  was 
mostly  down  hill,  and  the  barefooted  gharri-boys 
sped  soundlessly  between  the  shafts. 

We  had  left  a  new  member  of  the  family 
up  in  the  cosy  home,  in  the  pretty  garden;  a 
tiny  morsel  of  humanity  who  had  arrived  ten 
days  before,  and  who  didn't  think  it  at  all 
strange  that  he  should  be  bom  in  the  heart  of 
the  Dark  Continent,  just  where  the  equator 
crosses  Victoria  Nyanza.  The  eager  joy  of  the 
house-boys  over  his  arrival  was  pretty  to  see. 
184 


Muhuma  Cowman,  Uganda  Type 


Natives  Catching  and  Eating  White  Ants  —  Uganda 


LEAVING    ENTEBBE 

Into  the  room  where  he  lay  by  his  mother's 
side  they  crept  silently  one  by  one,  long  before 
we  were  admitted  to  see  the  pair,  and  bending 
over  him  murmured,  in  their  soft,  rich  voices, 
''  M'suri''  ("beautiful"). 

We  steamed  out  of  Entebbe  harbor  early 
next  morning.  The  Sybil  was  a  gleaming  white, 
smart-looking,  250-ton  steamer,  which,  with 
her  twin  sister,  the  Winifred,  had  been  brought 
out  in  sections  from  England  and  put  together 
on  arriving  at  the  lake.  She  was  a  most  com- 
fortable little  vessel,  with  electric  Hghts,  nice 
cabins,  the  first  porcelain  tub  we  had  seen  in 
Africa  and  an  excellent  cuisine.  The  Winifred 
was  making  the  round  of  Victoria  Nyanza, 
there  being  a  contract  with  the  German  govern- 
ment to  provide  a  regular  service  for  the  Ger- 
man ports  at  the  southern  end  of  the  lake. 

The  day  was  an  exquisite  one,  and  the  trip 
along  the  coast  gave  us  a  series  of  charming 
views.  The  shores  rose  abruptly  from  the 
water  and  were  clothed  in  forests  alternating 
with  open  stretches  of  green  grass.  To  the  east 
and  south  an  almost  unbroken  chain  of  islands 
187 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

dotted  the  lake.  There  was  no  sign  of  hiiman 
habitation,  though  with  the  aid  of  field-glasses 
I  saw  one  settlement  of  the  pointed  roofs  of 
native  kraals,  looking  like  haycocks.  I  was 
told  that  whereas  it  had  once  been  a  thriving 
village,  only  two  women  lived  there  now, 
all  the  other  inhabitants  having  died  of  sleeping- 
sickness.  I  suppose  these  two  did  not  join  any 
other  community  owing  to  a  characteristic 
peculiar  to  African  natives,  that  is,  an  ineradi- 
cable unfriendliness  between  tribes.  Within 
the  limits  of  a  tribe  or  commimity  they  will 
share  with  each  other  and  give  mutual  aid; 
but  there  are  no  intertribal  relations.  Six 
years  before  at  Tanga  I  had  seen  natives  dying 
and  dead  in  the  streets  —  perishing  from  famine, 
while  their  fellow  Africans  looked  on  with  in- 
difference and  gave  them  no  aid,  because  the 
sufferers  were  from  the  interior. 

The  waters  of  the  lake  rippled  in  the  morning 
sun.  The  steamer  ploughed  merrily  along. 
How  different  from  our  trip  of  five  weeks  be- 
fore! The  second  officer,  the  same  good- 
looking  youth  who  had  convoyed  us  in  the 
188 


LEAVING    ENTEBBE 

Sir  William  Mackinnon,  was  engaged  in  painting 
the  benches  on  the  immaculate  deck  where  we 
sat.  To  one  raihng  clung  a  monkey,  jabbering 
and  eating  bananas.  On  another  a  gray  parrot 
squawked  harshly.  I  turned  to  and  helped 
paint  the  seats  with  great  effect.  The  other 
passengers  —  of  whom  there  were  a  half  a 
dozen  —  lounged  about  in  long  steamer-chairs. 
One  of  the  loungers  was  Mr.  Freshfield,  the 
celebrated  mountain  climber,  who  had  come 
out  to  Uganda  to  attempt  the  ascent  of  Ru- 
wenzori.  He  had  not  only  failed,  but  had 
returned  to  Entebbe  with  three  kinds  of  fever 
microbes  rioting  in  his  system,  and  had  had 
just  strength  enough  to  crawl  from  the  hospital 
to  the  steamer,  a  very  ill  man.  Since  then  two 
Europeans  have  made  this  ascent;  one  whose 
name  I've  forgotten,  while  the  second  was  the 
Duke  of  Abruzzi  (cousin  to  the  King  of  Italy), 
who  was  much  disgusted  that  he  was  not  the 
first. 

I  remember  that  at  luncheon  that  day  on  the 
Sybily  we  had  a  delicious  curry  made  by  the 
Indian  cook.     It  takes  an  Indian  to  make  a 
189 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

pukka  curry,  and  when  well  made  it  is  the  dish 
for  the  tropics. 

About  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  we 
steamed  into  the  pretty,  almost  enclosed  harbor 
of  Jinga.  Here  we  laid  up  for  the  night.  Be- 
fore the  days  of  the  sleeping-sickness  this  bay 
was  well  filled  with  native  crafts  of  all  kinds, 
dugouts  and  dhows.  Now  but  few  were  to  be 
seen.  We  had  here  our  first  ride  in  a  real 
dugout,  for  when  a  kind  resident  of  Jinja  came 
to  show  us  the  sights  of  the  place  he  took  us 
ashore  in  one  of  these  curious  and  utterly 
African  boats.  It  was  between  thirty  and 
forty  feet  long,  hollowed  out  of  the  tnmk  of  a 
tree,  and  paddled  by  about  twenty  sturdy 
natives,  with  roimd  flat  paddles,  like  big 
wooden  soup-spoons.  As  we  roimded  the  end 
of  the  pier  it  looked  as  if  a  collision  was  immi- 
nent between  our  unwieldy  craft  and  a  huge 
lighter  swinging  slowly  and  heavily  about, 
which  would  mean  a  pleasant  feast  for  lurking 
crocodiles.  But  with  much  yelling  and  paddling 
our  boys  gave  our  dugout  a  lurching  twist  and 
landed  us  at  the  steps. 

190 


LEAVING    ENTEBBE 

The  principal  sight  of  Jinja  is  the  Falls  of 
Ripon,  the  place  where  the  waters  of  this  great 
lake  slip  over  the  rocks  and  start  on  their  way 
via  Uganda,  the  Albert  Nyanza,  the  Soudan, 
and  Egypt  to  the  Mediterranean.  To  see  this, 
the  most  famous  and  historic  of  the  world's 
great  rivers,  at  its  inception,  is  a  distinct 
sensation.  Hitherto  we  had  only  felt  the  utter 
remoteness  of  this  comer  of  the  world,  its 
isolation  and  savage  loneliness.  But  these 
waters  that  flowed  slowly  under  the  keel  of  our 
boat  were  going  around  that  point  of  land  to 
tumble  into  that  flood  which  would  eventually 
roll  by  Khartoum,  and  on  by  those  famous 
ruins,  those  splendid  tombs,  those  historic 
places,  to  Cairo  and  the  Mediterranean. 

On  landing  at  Jinja  one  is  first  struck  with 
the  vast  tract  of  utterly  bare,  red  earth  which 
fronts  the  settlement,  sloping  thence  to  the 
lake.  This  has  been  denuded  of  all  vegetation 
in  the  hopes  of  thus  driving  away  the  fever- 
bringing  mosquito  which  especially  haunts 
these  shores  of  the  lake.  To  the  right  as  you 
walk  up  the  bank  lies  the  military  camp  —  a 
191 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

neat-looking  enclostire.  Further  on  and  almost 
out  of  sight  is  the  native  town  where  the  Indians 
and  Africans  live  in  corrugated  iron  shanties  and 
grass  huts.  Here  are  also  the  stores  of  the 
traders.  To  the  left,  near  the  bare  summit 
of  the  low  hill,  are  the  inevitable  tennis-courts 
which  the  English  dweller  in  the  tropics  sets 
up  as  soon  as  he  does  his  house,  to  give  him  the 
exercise  so  difficult  to  achieve  otherwise  in 
this  climate.  Further  on  are  the  three  or  four 
dwellings  of  the  Europeans,  for  Jinja,  though 
an  important  post,  is  a  small  one,  the  only- 
white  woman  living  there  being  the  wife  of  the 
sub-commissioner.  Coming  from  well-wooded 
and  flower-embowered  Entebbe,  this  place, 
without  trees  or  foliage  of  any  kind,  looked  bare 
and  tmattractive.  Yet  each  house  stood  in  its 
little  enclosure,  where  some  attempt  at  culti- 
vating flowers  and  vegetables  was  made. 

Leaving  the  settlement  we  struck  off  to  the 
west  through  a  region  of  high  grass  and  low 
shrubs  in  the  heat  of  a  very  fervid  afternoon 
sun  to  see  the  falls.  Where  the  narrow  path 
necessitated  single  file,  my  guide  went  ahead 
192 


LEAVING    ENTEBBE 

on  accotmt  of  possible  danger  from  the  leopards 
which  are  plentiful  in  this  neighborhood;  also 
to  scare  away  any  momba,  or  puff-adder,  or  other 
poisonous  snake  that  might  be  in  the  way. 
On  the  soft  red  earth  of  the  wider  path  it  gave 
me  a  great  thrill  to  see  the  huge  footprints  of 
a  big  hippopotamus  that  had  passed  that  way 
not  long  before.  We  followed  these  until 
a  trail  of  broken  twigs  and  trampled  grass 
to  the  left  showed  where  he  had  turned  his 
mighty  bulk  and  sHpped  and  sHd  down  to  the 
water's  edge  a  himdred  feet  or  more  below. 
We  walked  to  a  lofty  point  which  overlooks 
the  Nile  in  both  directions,  giving  a  fine  pano- 
ramic view  of  its  first  splendid  sweep  to  the 
north,  between  high,  wooded  banks,  an  im- 
pressive sight.  Then,  partly  retracing  our 
steps,  we  made  our  way  down  to  a  rocky  penin- 
sula which  juts  out  into  the  falls  and  enables 
one  to  come  within  touching  distance  of  the 
great,  green  swirl  of  water  that  curls  without 
a  ripple  over  the  edge  of  the  first  descent. 
The  falls  are  really  more  cataracts  than  any- 
thing else,  as  the  water  rushes  over  an  inclined 
193 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

plane  of  jagged  rocks  with  little  that  could  be 
called  a  fall. 

A  large  colony  of  vultures  were  perched  on 
the  shores  and  boulders  not  far  away.  A  little 
beyond  them  my  guide  pointed  out  the  nostrils 
of  several  hippopotami  who  were  lying  close 
imder  the  surface  of  the  water;  all  that  was 
visible  of  them  being  these  breathing-holes  — 
while  across  the  rushing  torrent  his  more 
practised  eye  also  saw  lying  near  a  quiet  pool 
a  giant  crocodile.  To  me  it  looked  like  some 
gnarled  log.  I  dipped  my  hand  in  the  rushing 
waters,  which  looked  like  molten  beryl,  to  get 
the  blessing  of  the  Nile,  and  thought  of  the 
immense  journey  that  the  drops  that  slipped 
from  my  fingers  were  to  take.  Then  we  climbed 
the  steep  bank  of  red  and  slippery  clay,  and 
wended  our  way  back  to  the  house  of  my  guide 
and  host. 

Here,  being  very  warm  and  thirsty,  we  par- 
took of  the  only  alternative  for  whiskey  and 
soda  in  this  country,  lime  juice  and  lukewarm 
soda,  ice  being  utterly  unknow^n  this  side  of 
Mombasa  on  the  sea,  and  water  being  quite 
194 


LEAVING    ENTEBBE 

unattainable.  We  then  inspected  a  very  fine 
leopard  cub,  a  beautiful  spotted  creature,  whose 
hour  of  doom  was  drawing  near.  He  was  so 
large  as  soon  to  be  getting  dangerous,  while 
even  then  he  attracted  wild  leopards  who 
came  nightly  snuffing  around  the  house. 
Through  the  wooden  bars  of  the  box  in  which 
he  was  kept  he  looked  like  a  splendid,  dappled, 
golden  cat.    But  one  didn't  care  to  caress  him. 

When  we  returned  to  the  ship  the  air  was 
already  sneezingly  redolent  with  the  cargo 
of  chillies  we  were  shipping  (the  parent  of 
cayenne  pepper),  a  pungent,  not  disagree- 
able, but  tickling  odor. 

Expressing  great  interest  in  the  hippos  of  the 
lake,  I  was  told  that  I  was  likely  to  hear  the 
soft,  musical,  rather  plaintive  grunt  of  two 
or  three  which  nightly  haunted  the  harbor. 
So  I  tried  to  stay  awake,  but  the  lapping  of 
the  water  against  the  ship's  side  was  too  sooth- 
ing, and  I  soon  fell  asleep  to  be  waked  up  by 
a  small  lemur,  pet  of  one  of  the  passengers, 
which  jumped  with  its  four  clammy  human 
paws  full  on  my  face.  I  knew  instantly  what 
195 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

it  was,  a  most  exquisite  silky  and  gentle  little 
beast,  so  the  first  shock  passed,  and  after  letting 
the  creature  curl  up  in  a  hollow  at  my  feet,  I 
again  went  to  sleep,  to  awake  only  in  the  full, 
rosy  flush  of  a  tropical  dawn. 

The  trip  across  the  lake  the  next  day  was 
delightful.  We  were  hardly  ever  out  of  sight 
of  land.  From  the  mainland  or  from  the  nu- 
merous islands  that  dot  Victoria  Nyanza  we  saw 
many  clouds  of  the  small  insects  known  as  the 
kungu  fly,  common  to  the  lake  district,  rising 
in  spirals,  blown  by  the  wind  into  what  looked 
like  waterspouts.  Fortimately  none  drifted 
our  way. 

The  painting  of  the  benches  was  successfully 
finished.  The  monkey,  which  had  escaped  and 
fled  to  the  most  inaccessible  part  of  the  ship, 
was  lured  back  by  bananas,  caught  and  se- 
cured. The  lemur,  which  slept  all  day  and 
prowled  all  night,  was  found  curled  up  fast 
asleep  in  the  captain's  hat.  For  dinner  we 
had  once  more  a  dish  of  that  hot  and  excellent 
curry.  Before  sunset  we  came  in  sight  of  the 
wild,  bare  and  lonely  mountains  which  guard 
196 


Ripon  Falls,  Usoga  Side 


Beating  Out  Bark  Cloth  in  Uganda 


LEAVING   ENTEBBE 

the  entrance  to  Kavirondo  Bay  (called  by 
some  Kisumu  Bay).  As  it  was  too  near  dark 
to  be  quite  safe  to  navigate  this  bay,  we  an- 
chored at  its  entrance,  this  making  our  third 
night  on  the  Sybil  When  we  woke  up  the  next 
morning  we  found  ourselves  moored  alongside 
the  clamorous  dock  at  Port  Florence,  where 
stood  the  little  train  waiting  for  us  and  our 
luggage. 


190 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE   JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

\T  71X11  the  confusion  which  seems  to  attend 
all  dealings  with  native  porters,  we  had 
our  belongings  conveyed  to  the  railway  car- 
riage and  luggage  van.  Then,  finding  that  there 
was  still  ample  time  before  the  starting  hour  — 
half -past  eleven  —  to  visit  the  Kavirondo 
market,  a  party  of  us  decided  to  take  in  this 
one  of  the  extraordinary  sights  of  East  Africa. 
As  I  have  already  said,  the  Kavirondos  are  the 
tribe  living  on  the  northeast  shores  of  Lake 
Victoria,  a  tall,  fine-looking,  well-developed 
race,  who  are  chiefly  distinguished  from  the 
other  East  African  tribes  to  be  seen  along  the 
Uganda  railway  by  the  fact  that  the  men  and 
women,  as  a  rule,  wear  absolutely  no  clothes, 
not  even  the  customary  loin-cloth.  In  spite 
of  which  they  are  said  to  be  the  most  moral  of 
200 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

the  peoples  of  that  region.  They  wear  innumer- 
able ornaments,  however,  of  beads,  gleaming 
copper  wire,  leather  and  elephant  hair,  which 
latter  they  twist  into  shiny,  black  bracelets  and 
anklets.  The  copper  wire  they  wind  in  heavy 
coils  about  their  arms  and  legs.  Their  kinky, 
woolly  locks  are  done  in  all  sorts  of  fantastic 
styles,  one  gay  and  industrious  buck  having  ap- 
parently strung  every  hair  of  his  head  full  of  glit- 
tering black  beads,  so  that  no  hair  was  visible, 
only  this  rattling,  shining,  gorgon-like  coiffure. 
They  also  scarify  themselves,  having  in 
connection  with  this  some  curious  ideas.  The 
women,  to  avert  ill  fortime  from  their  husbands, 
cut  vertical  slits  in  their  foreheads,  making 
small  scars.  Or  a  devoted  wife,  to  further 
propitiate  fate,  will  make  incisions  in  the  skin 
of  her  abdomen,  following  a  design,  and  by 
rubbing  the  juice  of  some  plant  in  these  will 
raise  huge  weals.  My  invaluable  source  of 
information  in  East  Africa,  Sir  Harry  Johnston, 
further  writes  that  a  Kavirondo  husband  before 
setting  out  to  fight  will  make  a  few  extra  cuts 
in  his  wife's  body  "  as  a  porte-bonheur.'' 
201 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

They  also,  like  their  neighbors,  the  Masai 
and  Nandi,  have  the  custom  of  pulling  out 
some  of  the  lower  teeth,  usually  the  two  middle 
incisors.  Some  one  explains  this  habit  among 
the  Masai  by  saying  that  tetanus  was  once  a 
scourge  in  East  Africa  and  that  it  was  found  to 
be  easy  to  feed  a  man  suffering  from  lockjaw 
if  there  were  gaps  in  his  row  of  teeth.  The 
explanation  seems  inadequate,  as  the  custom 
is  wide-spread  among  savages. 

Leaving  the  steamer,  we  made  our  way  across 
a  bare,  heat-boimd  stretch  of  ground  to  the 
native  market.  To  the  right  in  the  distance 
were  the  houses  of  the  European  residents 
perched  up  above  the  lake„  The  place  is  said 
to  be  especially  unhealthy,  and  it  looks  it,  there 
being  something  depressingly  dreary  and  mi- 
asmatic in  the  general  aspect  of  it.  The  waters 
of  Kavirondo  Bay  are  not  blue  and  fresh  looking 
like  those  of  Victoria  Nyanza,  but,  owing  to  the 
presence  of  an  enormous  quantity  of  weeds 
and  grasses,  are  brow^n  and  unwholesome  in 
appearance. 

The  market  was  a  large,  open  square,  with  a 
202 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

roofed-over  space  in  the  middle,  flanked  on  four 
sides  with  booths  where  the  traders,  Indian, 
Goanese  and  African,  carried  on  their  business. 
Under  the  central  shelter  little  piles  of  seeds, 
millet,  rice,  com,  sesame,  and  many  things 
with  which  I  was  not  familiar,  were  ranged. 
There  were  unfamiliar  fruits  and  what  looked 
like  mud  pies,  I  never  could  find  any  one  who 
knew  what  they  were.  And  crowding  every 
available  place  were  ever-changing  groups  of 
these  extraordinary  savages »  Seated  on  the 
grotmd,  perhaps  around  a  little  fire,  would  be 
a  circle  of  women,  smoking  queer  pipes  or 
cigarettes  of  native  tobacco,  or  chewing  nuts; 
while  wandering  about  were  bands  of  young 
warriors  armed  with  strange  shields  and  spears, 
or  bows  and  arrows  =  Some  were  smeared  with 
oil  and  plastered  over  with  red  mud.  There 
was  much  ornamentation  of  the  bodies  of  both 
men  and  women  with  curious  designs  pricked 
out  with  poison,  which  turned  the  flesh  at  each 
prick  into  a  lump.  The  fine  carriage  of  all  these 
African  savages  was  noticeable,  due  probably 
to  the  custom  of  carrying  loads  on  their  heads. 
203 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

There  were  hundreds  of  these  Kavirondos 
wandering  peaceably  about,  bartering  for  what 
they  wanted,  using  the  strings  of  cowry  shells 
which  in  this  part  of  Africa  serve  the  natives 
in  lieu  of  money.  At  first  they  regarded  us 
with  a  shy,  aloof  interest,  but  after  awhile  were 
inclined  to  too  close  an  inspection  for  comfort, 
and  we  left  the  enclosure,  carrying  with  us 
unforgettable  mental  pictures  of  himian  life  in 
its  most  primitive,  elemental  forms;  dark, 
glossy  skins;  tall,  well-formed  bodies;  fine, 
white  teeth;  soft,  musical  voices;  beads  of 
many  colors;  shining  copper- wire  ornaments; 
strange  scarifications,  and,  finally,  that  pun- 
gent, unmistakable,  suffocating  African  odor, 
so  suggestive  of  teeming,  irrepressible,  savage 
life. 

That  afternoon,  in  the  train,  looking  down  a 
steep  slope,  I  saw  a  family  of  hyenas,  high- 
backed,  hairy,  hideous,  tearing  at  some  carrion, 
probably  left  by  a  wandering  lion. 

At  sunset,  at  Nakuru,  a  station  in  the  Nandi 
country,  I  got  out  to  walk  up  and  down  during 
the  halt  the  train  made  there,  and  was  much 
204s 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

interested  in  the  vast  herds  of  cattle  which 
the  English  had  captured  from  the  Nandis  and 
driven  in  to  the  various  stations.  For  the  little 
Nandi  war  was  now  over,  and  the  Nandis  were 
suing  for  peace.  As  fast  as  the  different  divi- 
sions of  the  tribe  would  come  in  and  give  up 
their  arms,  their  cattle  would  be  returned  to 
them,  deducting  a  certain  proportion  for  pun- 
ishment. The  sun  was  sinking  in  splendor, 
filling  the  wide  plain  which  lies  about  Nakuru 
with  a  golden  glory.  The  pens  behind  the 
station  were  filled  with  the  lowing  herds.  The 
station  platform  was  alive  with  native  troops 
and  good-looking  English  officers;  and  once 
more  a  recurring  realization  of  the  wonderful 
combination  of  firmly  maintained  order  and 
wild  and  remote  savagery  swept  over  me.  In 
how  few  years  had  this  been  achieved! 

The  train  tooted  and  I  mounted  to  our 
compartment,  and  in  looking  backward  as 
we  rumbled  out  caught  one  last  glimpse  of  a 
wilderness  of  tossing  horns  against  the  gor- 
geous west  It  was  all  that  I  saw  of  the  Nandi 
war. 

207 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

The  Nandi  and  Masai  are  the  most  warhke 
among  the  East  African  tribes.  This  may  be 
due  to  a  custom  common  to  both,  that  of 
drinking  blood  new-drawn,  warm,  and  foaming 
from  their  oxen.  The  latter  are  bled  by  having 
a  leather  thong  tied  tightly  arotmd  the  throat. 
Below  this  bandage  the  warrior  shoots  an  arrow 
into  the  neck,  only  just  far  enough  to  tap  the 
vein.  The  arrow  is  drawn  out  and  the  blood 
gushing  forth  flows  into  earthen  pots.  When 
enough  has  been  collected  the  thong  is  removed 
and  the  wound  stopped  up  with  a  mixture  of 
cow  dung  and  dust„  The  frothing  blood  is 
sometimes  mixed  with  sour  or  sweet  milk,  but 
is  generally  drunk  alone,  and  supplies  the  salt 
necessary  for  the  system. 

We  arranged  ourselves  as  comfortably  as 
we  could  for  the  night.  We  had  not  brought 
away  with  us  the  extra  blankets  with  which 
we  had  provided  ourselves  on  our  upward 
journey,  as  we  thought  our  travelling-rugs 
would  be  enough,  and  we  did  not  wish  to  be 
encumbered  with  the  heavy  woollen  things  for 
the  three  weeks  of  tropical  travel  which  lay  be- 
208 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

fore  us.  To  supplement  our  steamer-rugs  I  had 
brought  along  a  great  armful  of  Chicago  Trib- 
unes, Paper  is  supposed  to  be  a  retainer  of 
heat.  Doubtless  ours  would  have  been  if  they 
had  stayed  on„  But  they  spent  the  night 
slipping  off.  As  we  rose  and  crossed  the  eight 
thousand  foot  divide  the  air  was  thin  and  dis- 
tressingly cold,  I  would  swathe  myself  in  those 
Tribunes  and,  after  getting  accustomed  to  their 
subdued  crackle,  would  doze  off,  only  to  be 
awakened  with  a  chill  start  by  those  wretched 
journals  sliding  off  with  a  malicious,  slithering 
rustle.  It  was  what  the  French  would  call 
une  nuit  penible. 

But  dawn  came  at  last,  and  I  forgot  the 
troubles  of  the  night  in  my  eagerness  not  to 
miss  one  instant  of  the  wonderful  Bamum's 
show  which  the  Uganda  Railw^ay  gives  you. 
It  is  like  a  reversal  of  the  usual  circus  procession. 
We  were  in  the  cages,  moving  through  the 
land,  while  the  animals  we  used  to  watch  in 
their  cages  were  now  outside  living  their  lives 
and  gazing  at  us  en  passant.  There  was  hardly 
a  moment  of  the  day  when  there  was  not  in 
209 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

sight  some  interesting  spectacle,  either  herds 
of  zebras,  or  gnus,  or  gazelles  of  many  kinds; 
or  else  three  or  four  ostriches  seesawing  away ; 
or  a  solitary  secretary-bird  with  its  fantastic 
crest;  or  a  bald-headed  vulture  flying  heavily 
from  one  low  tree  to  another.  Once  more  we 
came  to  Nairobi,  the  busy,  bustling  capital 
of  British  East  Africa.  Here  some  of  our 
whilom  steamer  companions  joined  us  to  go 
down  to  Mombasa. 

That  afternoon  came  the  two  crowning  ex- 
periences of  our  railway  trip,  I  was  playing 
a  game  of  bridge  imder  conditions  sufficiently 
curious  to  be  noted.  My  partner  was  a  well- 
known  English  scientist,  who  had  been  sent  out 
by  the  British  government  to  investigate  the 
sleeping-sickness.  The  other  players  were  his 
wife,  and  one  of  the  pioneers  in  East  Africa, 
a  man  who  has  walked  on  foot  from  the  sea 
to  Uganda  a  half  a  dozen  times,  and  is  a  great 
hunter  of  big  game.  Our  table  was  a  box 
built  for  a  monkey,  but  which  at  that  moment 
held  only  two  giant  sleeping  tortoises,  while 
the  monkey  sat  on  the  professor's  shoulder. 
210 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

The  little  lemur  I  mentioned  as  being  on  the 
boat  was  curled  up  inside  the  hat  of  madame, 
which  she  was  wearing,  while  a  gray  parrot 
jabbered  at  us  from  a  perch  above.  Outside 
the  sun  was  declining  in  a  golden  haze  when 
suddenly  we  saw  five  or  six  giraffes  sidling 
off  through  some  low  trees.  Their  gait  was 
as  awkward  as  it  is  in  the  circus  line  of  march, 
while  their  long  necks  seemed  as  much  in  the 
way  as  ever.  Their  dappled  sides  did  not  look 
so  bright  a  gold  as  in  the  circus  shows.  Rather 
were  they  of  a  dun  brown.  They  steered  their 
small,  frightened  heads  in  and  out  of  the  upper 
branches  of  the  scrub  thorns,  which  grew  here 
in  ragged  confusion,  and  soon  slipped  into  the 
surrounding  and  protecting  lights  and  shadows. 
Of  all  the  wild  creatures  I  saw  in  East  Africa 
those  giraffes  impressed  me  the  most.  Their 
farouche  heads,  ridiculous  necks,  and  shambling 
bodies  seem  so  strangely  unfamiliar  and  un- 
called for. 

Hardly  had  we  got  over  this  excitement  and 
settled  down  to  our  game  again  —  I  had  just 
made  it  "no  trumps  "  —  when  we  saw  to  the 
«11 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

right  of  the  track  a  huge  lioness,  bounding  along 
not  seventy  feet  away,  keeping  up  easily  with 
the  train,  which  was  proceeding  in  leisurely 
fashion.  As  she  seemed  so  interested  in  us  the 
train  drew  to  a  standstill,  and  at  this  the  lioness 
crouched  down  in  a  little  clump  of  grass,  her 
great,  powerful  head  and  shoulders  in  full  sight 
of  all  the  passengers.  The  men  in  the  train 
rushed  to  get  out  their  guns.  The  excitement 
was  intense  with  every  one  except  the  lioness. 
So  agitated  at  the  unexpected  sight  were  the 
hunters  that  they  could  not  find  their  ammimi- 
tion.  We  had  all  got  out  on  the  steps  of  the 
train,  and  every  eye  was  fixed  on  the  dark 
form  crouched  eighty  feet  away.  No  one  was 
frightened  —  though  had  the  beast  chosen 
she  might  have  leaped  on  the  crowd  and 
dragged  off  a  good  supper,  before  the  guns 
were  ready.  Much  haste  makes  little  speed, 
and  before  the  ammimition  turned  up  in  a  few 
minutes — it  seemed  much  longer  to  the  breath- 
less onlookers  —  she  turned,  and,  bounding  delib- 
erately across  the  track  behind  the  train,  disap- 
peared in  the  bush.  Bitterly  disappointed,  we 
212 


The  Residence  oi  the  Commissioner  at  Entebbe 


Governor's  Palace  at  Dar  Es  Salaam 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

piled  into  the  train  again  and  continued  otir 
journey. 

A  little  while  later  at  dusk,  a  big  lion,  prob- 
ably her  mate,  was  seen  on  the  other  side  of 
the  track  just  before  we  pulled  into  the  next 
station.  This  station,  curiously  enough,  was 
Simba  —  the  name  meaning,  as  I  have  said 
before,  "lion"  —  and  was  the  scene  of  the 
famous  lion  story  of  East  Africa.  On  the 
station  platform  lay  the  skin  of  a  lion  shot  a 
day  or  so  before.  So  plentiful  are  these  creatures 
in  that  neighborhood  that  after  nightfall  those 
on  one  side  of  the  track  in  the  station  never  dare 
to  cross  to  the  few  little  shanties  that  lie  on  the 
other  side  twenty  paces  away.  What  became 
of  our  bridge  game  I  don't  know.  But  it  is 
not  often  that  a  **  no  trump  "  hand  is  inter- 
rupted by  a  lion  hunt. 

We  had  three  days  to  spend  at  Mombasa 
before  the  steamer  came  that  was  to  take  us 
down  to  South  Africa.  Such  scorching,  glaring 
days  as  those  were  —  such  suffocating  nights ! 
But  the  kindness  and  hospitality  of  the  resi- 
dents of  Mombasa  made  the  time  go  quickly, 
S15 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

We  went  several  times  to  the  club,  a  most 
attractive  institution  housed  in  a  low,  one- 
storied  building,  whose  broad  verandas,  well 
furnished  with  deep  lounging-chairs,  look  out 
across  a  most  charmingly  tropical  garden  — 
a  space  of  coleas,  palms,  hibiscus,  and  other 
gorgeous  shrubs  —  to  the  entrance  of  the  har- 
bor, a  blue  rippling  strait  with  a  veritable 
jungle  of  cocoanut  and  fibre  palms  on  its 
further  shore,  dense,  impenetrable,  mysterious 
looking.  Here  we  had  tea  or  iced  drinks, 
and  the  ice  was  sl  luxury!  During  my  stay  in 
Entebbe  I  planned  to  make  my  everlasting 
fortune  by  running  jointly  an  ice  machine  and 
a  laundry-  As  there  would  be  no  other  com- 
petitors in  the  field,  my  ice  business  would 
practically  be  a  monopoly  and  I  could  charge 
what  I  liked  after  I  had  developed  the  taste 
for  it  in  the  Entebbeans.  While  the  water  not 
used  in  ice,  or  which  would  otherwise  be  lost  by 
the  melting  ice,  could  be  employed  in  a  laundry. 
The  present  method  for  the  latter  is  a  sort 
of  dry  wash;  the  clothes  are  soaped  and  then 
pounded  on  a  box  or  an  inverted  tin  tub  Then, 
216 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

to  judge  from  the  results,  they  are  torn  "  limb 
from  limb  "  —  "  mangled  "  the  process  is  called, 
and  it  is  well  named.  Tattered  remnants  were 
all  we  rescued  from  the  Entebbean  clothes- 
washers.  The  boys  who  do  the  laimdry  work 
are  called  dhobi  boys  —  and  are  able  to 
gauge  their  work  so  well  that  a  small  wash 
takes  quite  as  long  as  a  large  one. 

One  of  the  warm  evenings  at  Mombasa  we 
went  in  a  rumbling  little  trolley  to  dine  with 
hospitable  Mrs,  E.  It  was  delicious  riding 
bareheaded  and  bare-necked  through  the  dark- 
ness, the  smelly  lantern  at  our  feet  casting  a 
pale  circle  of  light  on  the  little  rails,  which 
fairly  whizzed  under  the  swift  rush  of  our 
trolley-boys.  When  we  came  to  a  descent  the 
boys  would  cling  on  to  the  sides  of  the  trolley 
and  coast  down.  The  heavy  odor  of  frangipani 
filled  the  night.  Lights  gleamed  out  of  low 
windows  of  distant  bungalows. 

The  company  was  delightful,  the  dinner 
excellent,  and  very  well  served  by  the  number- 
less barefooted  boys,  one  of  whom  sat  outside 
and  pulled  the  string  of  the  big  punkah  ovei 
217 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

our  heads.  The  room  was  high  and  airy,  with 
some  native  spears  and  shields  ornamenting 
the  walls  o 

Another  day  we  rumbled  over  at  noon  to 
limch  with  Mrs,  D.  The  meal  was  served 
in  a  wide,  breezy  upper  veranda  enclosed  in 
lattice.  It  was  most  refreshing,  after  the  glaring 
heat  outside  that  sizzled  up  from  the  white 
coral  sands  and  beat  against  the  face  in  oppress- 
ive waves,  to  step  into  the  cool  shade  of  that 
spacious  balcony.  There  was  much  good  cheer 
and  interesting  talk. 

On  a  bright,  but  not  too  warm,  afternoon, 
Judge  H.  took  us  in  a  smart  little  rowboat  to 
Freretown,  the  missionary  station  on  the 
mainland.  It  was  an  orderly,  w^ell-kept  place, 
where  the  natives  were  neatly  clad  in  European 
garb.  This  seems  a  pity,  as  besides  taking 
from  them  all  individuality,  it  is  said  to  make 
them  prone  to  European  maladies. 

The  place  is  named  for  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  in 

honor  of  his  memorable  visit  to  Zanzibar  to 

induce  Se3ryid  Bargash  to  suppress  the  slave- 

tradCo     To  England  belongs  the  entire  credit 

218 


THE    JOURNEY    CONTINUED 

for  the  extinction  of  this  infamous  traffic, 
called  out  there  "  the  Middle  Passage."  That 
it  still  flourishes  in  West  Africa  is  the  darkest 
blot  on  modem  civilization. 

At  Freretown  we  saw  the  very  fine  church 
entirely  built  by  the  natives.  We  also  visited 
a  melancholy  little  cemetery  where  the  riotous 
fervor  of  tropical  vegetation  is  trying  to  hide 
and  obliterate  the  gray  slabs  inscribed  with 
the  names  of  those  who  died  far  from  home. 
The  whole  place  left  a  sad  impression  of  fruitless 
struggle,  of  forces  too  strong  for  the  power 
brought  to  fight  them.  Remove  the  settlement 
and  in  less  than  a  year  the  converts  would 
revert  to  savagery,  and  the  rank,  tropical 
vegetation  would  run  riot  in  their  neat  en- 
closures, and  not  one  trace  of  the  labor  of 
the  missionaries  would  remain  in  the  heart  of 
the  people  or  on  the  face  of  the  land.  The 
sombre  power  of  Africa  to  remain  African  in 
spite  of  European  invasion  is  unmistakable. 
The  white  intruders  do  not  look  at  home  under 
the  heavy  mango-trees,  or  suitable  to  the 
landscape  of  palms  and  bananas.  They  may 
^19 


SO]\IE    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

build  their  railroads  and  establish  their  families 
in  the  Dark  Continent,  but  they  continue  to  be 
aliens.  They  merely  scratch  the  surface  of 
Africa,  whose  own  dusky  children  remain  at 
heart  savage  and  apart,  while  the  wilderness 
is  always  lurking  close  at  hand  ready  to  reclaim 
any  piece  of  cultivated  groimd  and  strangle  it 
in  its  own  lush  growth. 


220 


CHAPTER    X 

TO    DAR   ES    SALAAM 

\  1  noon,  in  a  fervid  and  glittering  intermis- 
sion  between  heavy  tropical  showers,  we 
steamed  out  of  the  inner  harbor  of  Mombasa,  on 
the  Kilindini  side  of  the  island .  The  well-buoyed 
channel  led  us  past  the  low  green  point  where, 
perched  high  to  catch  every  sea  breeze,  stood 
the  hospitable  btingalows  we  knew  so  well 
by  now.  On  the  opposite  side  stretched  the 
long  spit  of  mainland,  where  the  dense  jungle 
of  palms  and  other  tropic  foliage  so  vividly 
recalled  Robinson  Crusoe  and  kindred  romances. 
Outside  this,  in  a  vast  semicircle,  the  Indian 
Ocean  showed  its  cruel,  white  teeth,  as  its  waters 
broke  over  the  enclosing  coral  reefs. 

Our  first  stop  was  at  Tanga,  a  port  in  German 
East  Africa.  As  it  was  night  by  the  time  we 
were  swinging  about  on  our  anchor,  we  did  not 

221 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

go  ashore,  but  took  a  moonlight  row  in  the 
aknost  landlocked  harbor.  These  sparkling 
waters  are  said  to  be  uncommonly  full  of 
sharks,  so  we  were  more  than  usually  careful 
not  to  capsize.  Except  that  the  moon  was 
larger,  fuller,  more  radiant  than  usual,  while 
the  air  was  peculiarly  balmy,  and  freighted 
with  strange,  spicy  land  smells,  w^e  might  have 
been  bobbing  about  a  moonlight  night  on  Lake 
Michigan,  What  we  could  see  of  the  shores 
showed  them  to  be  low  and  w^ooded.  The  next 
morning  before  sun-up  we  were  away  to  Zan- 
zibar^ 

Zanzibar  —  doesn't  the  name  call  up  tales  of 
the  Arab  slave-trading  days  ?  Didn't  our  geog- 
raphies tell  us  that  the  chief  exports  of  this 
ancient  and  tropical  isle  were  cloves  and  copra? 
Isn't  there  a  Sultan  of  Zanzibar  famous  in  song? 
It  is  far  stranger,  more  mysterious  and  fascina- 
ting than  any  song  or  geography  or  romance 
gives  any  idea  of,  but  this  time  we  were  not 
allowed  to  land,  because  of  plague  there  and 
of  quarantine  regulations  at  other  ports.  It 
was  on  our  return  journey  that  we  had  our 
22ft 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

glimpse  of  Zanzibar.  So,  regretfully  we  gazed 
across  the  intensely  green-blue  waters  at  the 
sea-front  of  the  city,  with  its  quaint  Arab  houses 
and  minarets  rising  in  picturesque  confusion. 
In  the  centre  of  the  picture  stands  the  Sultan's 
palace  with  its  tier  on  tier  of  iron  verandas, 
running  across  each  story  of  its  new,  garish 
front ;  the  whole  looking  more  like  an  unsightly 
American  watering-place  hotel  than  an  Oriental 
potentate's  palace.  His  predecessor  had  a  very 
effective  and  historic-looking  dwelling  some 
ten  years  ago,  but  this  w^as  shelled  by  the 
English  at  a  critical  moment.  At  that  time 
Germany  claimed  suzerainty  over  Zanzibar. 
The  German  emperor  concluded  that  in  his 
scheme  of  military  establishment,  the  rocky, 
bleak,  tminhabitable  island  of  Heligoland  in 
the  Baltic  would  be  of  more  use  to  him  than  his 
rather  imcertain  control  of  Zanzibar,  so  he 
bartered  with  Great  Britain,  exchanging  his 
somewhat  hazy  claims  on  the  East  African 
isle  for  the  rock  in  the  Baltic,  There  are  few 
German  travellers  on  the  East  Coast  who  do 
not  to-day  regret  this  exchange,  for  the  island 
223 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

is  one  of  the  richest  and  most  productive  in 
the  world. 

On  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  the  English 
admiral  nearest  at  hand  (his  name  I've  for- 
gotten) was  ordered  to  sail  into  the  harbor  of 
Zanzibar  and  hoist  the  British  flag.  The  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar,  however,  objected  to  the  transac- 
tion all  arotmd,  and  manned  a  silly,  ineffectual 
little  ship  with  some  silly  and  ineffectual  little 
men  and  sent  it  out  in  the  bay  to  meet  the 
mightiest  sea  power  in  the  world.  It  is  rather 
a  pathetic  picture.  The  British  admiral 
promptly  sank  the  foolish  craft  with  all  on 
board  and  then  shelled  the  palace.  It  was  said 
that  there  were  a  good  many  women  and 
children  in  it  at  the  time,  but  this  does  not 
seem  probable.  The  whole  war  was  over  in  an 
hour;  the  Sultan  was  a  fugitive  on  a  German 
man-of-war  and  the  English  were  full  masters 
of  the  most  desirable  port  on  the  East  Coast. 
The  masts  and  spars  of  the  miserable  Httle  ship 
still  stick  up  out  of  the  rippling  waters  of  the 
bay,  a  favorite  roosting-place  for  gulls.  The 
ruins  of  the  palace  have  been  removed  and  a 
2M 


Scene  in  Zanzibar 


A  Street  in  Zanzibar 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

distant  relative  of  the  Sultan  established  on 
his  throne,  an  empty  honor  at  the  best.  The 
dethroned  ruler  was  taken  to  German  East 
Africa,  where  he  was  pensioned  and  kindly- 
treated.  I  think  he  still  lives  there.  If  not, 
he  died  only  recently. 

There  is  a  rule  in  the  British  navy  —  I 
presume  we  have  a  similar  one  in  ours  — 
that  no  officer  lower  in  rank  than  an  admiral 
may  take  his  wife  or  womenkind  in  his  ship  for 
a  cruise,  but  an  admiral  may.  This  particular 
one  happened  to  have  both  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter on  board  when  he  was  obliged  to  bombard 
Zanzibar.  As  there  was  nowhere  to  land  them, 
they  had  the  unusual  experience  for  women  of 
being  on  board  a  man-of-war  when  it  was  in 
action. 

It  is  only  a  few  hours'  trip  from  Zanzibar  to 
Dar  Es  Salaam.  The  sun  was  half-way  to 
the  western  horizon  when  we  steamed  into  the 
large,  entirely  landlocked  harbor  of  the  capital 
of  German  East  Africa,  which  is  reached  by  a 
very  narrow,  winding  channel.  The  town  lies 
in  a  wide  semicircle  on  the  shores  of  the 
227 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

bay,  the  steeples  of  the  two  churches  —  the 
Catholic  and  German  Lutheran  • —  standing 
like  exclamation -points  against  the  sky- 
line. 

As  soon  as  our  anchor  was  dropped  our  atten- 
tion was  called  to  a  very  trim-looking  rowboat, 
manned  by  dusky  sailor  lads  in  white  sailor 
suits,  trimmed  with  blue,  which  put  out 
from  a  very  pretty,  white-balustraded  pier,  and 
darted  towards  us.  A  uniformed  young  German 
officer  sat  erect  in  the  stem,  and  the  red,  white, 
and  black  flag  of  the  fatherland  trailed  behind 
him.  It  was  the  cutter  of  the  governor,  sent 
by  his  wife  to  convey  us  and  our  luggage  to 
her  house;  for  we  were  forttmate  enough  to 
be  invited  by  the  charming  Countess  von 
Goetzen  to  visit  her  during  the  time  the  ship 
lay  in  harbor.  As  we  were  carrying  an  unusually 
large  cargo  of  steel  rails  for  the  new  German 
railroad  up  into  the  interior,  we  had  five  very 
dehghtful  days  there  while  these  rails  were 
tmloaded. 

Count  Adolf  von  Goetzen  had  been  at  the 
head  of  German  affairs  in  this  part  of  the  world 
228 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

since  1901,  and  under  his  administration  won- 
ders have  been  accomplished.  Fine  roads  have 
been  laid  out  in  all  directions ;  pretty  new  houses, 
up-to-date  in  every  particular,  have  been  built 
for  the  officials,  with  bricks  and  tiles  brought 
from  Germany,  while  the  native  quarter  is  a 
model  of  cleanly  orderliness.  Much  as  I  admire 
English  colonial  methods,  I  must  admit  that 
in  Dar  Es  Salaam  the  Germans  have  out- 
stripped their  neighbors  in  some  directions,  and 
their  intense  energy,  industry  and  zeal  are  a 
marked  contrast  to  the  more  deliberate  and 
conservative  methods  which  sometimes  char- 
acterize British  officials  in  the  tropics.  To  be 
sure,  they  have  put  an  enormous  amount  of 
money  into  the  making  of  this  the  capital  of 
German  East  Africa,  and  their  British  neighbors 
say  that  England  does  not  put  money  into  a 
place  unless  she  sees  a  sure  and  not  too  far  off 
return  for  it,  while  the  Germans  are  looking 
to  the  very  remote  future  for  their  return  on 
the  millions  that  annually  go  to  the  support 
and  development  of  this  colony. 

The  governor's  house  is  a  veritable  palace 
J229 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

out  of  the  Arabian  Nights  Tales,  set  in  the 
loveHest  tropical  garden  I  ever  saw,  a  park  of 
palms,  gorgeous  shrubs,  giant  ferns,  and  fragrant 
with  frangipani,  champak,  and  other  sweet  or 
spicy  flowers.  On  one  side  one  descends  by 
broad  terraces  to  the  sea,  where  there  is  a  skirt- 
ing path  under  a  row  of  pale,  shimmering  Afri- 
can hemlocks.  The  main  approach  to  the  house 
is  by  a  straight,  densely  shaded  avenue  of 
mango-trees.  The  residence  is  a  vast,  square, 
white-stuccoed  structure  with  an  overhanging 
roof,  and  a  huge  encircling  two-storied  veranda, 
whose  double  tier  of  Moorish  arches  and  pillars 
gives  the  house  its  romantic  character. 

On  either  side  of  the  imposing  doors,  as  we 
entered  through  files  of  sentries  and  white- 
gowned  native  servants,  were  two  guest- 
rooms, big,  airy  apartments,  most  exquisitely 
furnished.  Further  on  was  the  great  square 
hall,  imroofed  and  open  to  the  blue  sky.  In  the 
centre  was  a  fine  bronze  bust  of  the  emperor 
on  a  marble  pedestal.  The  walls  were  orna- 
mented with  spears  and  shields  and  native 
trophies.    At  one  side  on  a  low  platform  stood 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

an  elephant  in  ebony,  with  ivory  tusks,  sur- 
rotinded  by  Httle  elephants  of  the  same  make, 
the  big  one  being  about  four  feet  tall,  a  piece 
of  fine  and  imposing  workmanship.  Opposite 
the  entrance  were  the  offices  of  the  governor, 
and  a  pretty  reception-room  which  opened  out 
on  a  charming  terrace  overlooking  the  sea, 
where  every  afternoon  the  countess  received 
guests  and  dispensed  tea.  A  fine  wide  stair- 
case leads  to  the  upper  and  main  story,  where 
were  the  apartments  of  the  coimt  and  countess ; 
the  dining-room  and  drawing-rooms,  all  beauti- 
fully ftimished  with  the  taste  which  especially 
distinguished  Countess  von  Goetzen.  Heavily 
carved  teak-wood  furniture,  softly  shaded 
lamps,  rich  Oriental  coverings  and  draperies,  a 
profusion  of  silver  vases  full  of  flowers,  photo- 
graphs, framed  and  unframed,  and  choice 
knickknacks  gave  an  air  of  sumptuous  finish 
quite  bewildering  when  you  considered  where 
you  were.  These  rooms  all  opened  out  by  many 
French  windows  to  the  wide,  shady  verandas, 
where  were  wicker  chairs,  couches  and  tables 
and  big  grass- woven  mats.  By  day,  when  the 
«S1 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

glare  might  be  disagreeable,  soft,  green  reed 
curtains  shut  out  the  light  and  let  in  the  breezes ; 
by  night,  however,  these  were  raised  and  the 
scene,  as  one  looked  out  into  the  rustling  palms, 
baobabs,  mango-trees  and  other  tropical  foliage, 
was  magical,  whether  seen  by  the  dazzling  moon 
(which  almost  glares  in  the  tropics)  or  by  the 
wonderful  starlight. 

On  the  two  main  fronts  of  the  house  this 
upper  veranda  widened  out  to  great  open-air 
apartments.  In  one  of  these,  on  especially 
stifling  evenings,  the  big  round  dinner-table 
was  sometimes  laid  with,  as  the  society 
reporter  would  put  it,  '*  covers  "  for  twenty 
or  thirty.  With  its  glittering  crystal  and  silver, 
its  charming  garlands  of  the  flame-of-the- 
forest  (an  exquisite  tropical  blossom)  and  its 
shaded  candles,  it  made  a  beautiful  oasis  of 
light  in  the  shadows  of  an  East  African  night. 
The  livery  of  the  countess's  household  was  the 
most  effective  I  saw  in  that  part  of  the  world. 
In  addition  to  the  embroidered  cap  and  long 
white  gown,  or  kanzu,  the  servants  wore  black 
zouave  jackets  richly  embroidered  in  gold,  and 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

were  girt  with  red,  fringed  sashes,  tied  at  the 
side.  An  infinite  number  of  them  flitted  noise- 
lessly about  in  the  service  of  the  house.  This 
prodigality  of  attendance  is  very  demoralizing 
to  one  used  to  the  more  austere  system  of  self- 
help  in  America.  In  East  Africa  no  one  ever 
lifts  his  finger  for  even  the  smallest  servdce. 
To  move  a  chair,  to  pick  up  a  card,  to  open 
a  door,  to  lift  a  book,  a  boy  is  called,  in  fact, 
is  generally  close  at  hand.  And  most  of  these 
servants  were  born  savages  in  grass  huts,  of 
people  who  hunted  with  bows  and  arrows,  and 
occasionally  enjoyed  a  little  cannibalistic  feast. 
The  Germans  have  trained  their  natives 
wonderfully,  those  that  they  have  adapted  to 
their  civic  and  domestic  usages.  The  first 
morning  after  our  arrival  we  were  serenaded 
by  the  native  band  of  some  twenty-five  or 
thirty  pieces.  There  they  stood  outside  our 
windows  clad  in  regimentals  (stiff  khaki  helmets, 
neat  coats  and  knee-breeches  of  the  same,  and 
shiny,  bare  black  legs)  around  their  leader,  a 
German  in  full  uniform.  The  music  was  ex- 
cellent, given  with  spirit  and  precision.  The 
2S8 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

German,  with  the  indomitable  perseverance 
of  his  race,  had  trained  them,  he  speaking  not 
one  word  of  their  language,  they  not  one  word  of 
his.  Each  man  had  had  to  be  separately  taught 
his  instrument.  Probably  none  of  them  could 
read  any  written  language,  yet  each  could  read 
his  little  sheet  of  music,  and  time  his  instru- 
ment, and  play  in  accord  with  his  fellows.  It 
was  a  sight  worth  seeing,  and  a  serenade  worth 
listening  to,  there  in  the  shade  of  those  thick, 
black  trees,  with  the  foreground  of  dazzling, 
white  coral-sand  road,  the  intense  blue  sky 
above  and  the  sentries  who  walked  up  and  down 
a  few  feet  from  otir  windows  all  day  and  all  night. 
Down  by  the  sea,  at  the  end  of  that  pleasant 
walk  under  the  feathery  hemlocks,  was  the 
aquarium,  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and  inter- 
esting sights  in  all  of  East  Africa.  It  was  the 
especial  hobby  of  Count  von  Goetzen.  Housed 
in  a  most  artistic  little  white  stucco  building, 
with  its  feet  really  in  the  sea,  stands  this  young, 
audacious  rival  of  the  far-famed  Naples  aqua- 
rium. On  entering  we  descended  about  ten 
steps  and  fovmd  ourselves  in  a  space  of  cool, 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

shimmering,  green  shadows,  as  the  light  came 
from  above  through  the  glass  tanks  on  either 
side.  And  in  these  tanks  floated,  or  cosily 
slumbered,  the  strangest,  weirdest  denizens 
of  the  Indian  Ocean;  horrid  mottled  octopi; 
grewsome,  pallid  sea- worms,  of  huge  size; 
little  fishes  of  most  opalescent  transparency; 
other  strange  fishes  that  seemed  to  be  trailing 
brown  and  white  feathers,  instead  of  fins;  still 
others  that  looked  Hke  abortive  birds  of  the 
swallow  variety.  It  was  truly  a  wonderful 
assortment,  living  in  bosky  dells  of  seaweed 
and  sea-anemones  and  queer  shells  and  coral 
formations  that  must  often  have  cheated  them 
into  forgetting  their  captivity.  On  a  later 
visit  the  count  told  me  of  a  curious  battle  that 
took  place  in  one  of  the  tanks  where  the  sea- 
worm  and  a  huge  octopus  dwelt  in  apparent 
amity  till  the  day  the  adventure  befell.  It 
was  a  great  relaxation  for  the  count  to  take 
an  hour  or  so  in  his  very  busy  life  to  watch 
the  creatures  in  the  aquarium.  Noticing  one 
day  that  the  pale  sea-worm  was  not  visible 
he  hunted  for  him,  and  discovered  all  that 
235 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

was  left  of  him  was  a  still  struggling  end 
—  tail  or  head,  who  can  tell?  —  sticking  out 
of  the  swollen  mouth  of  the  monstrous 
octopus,  who  was  evidently  struggling  inter- 
nally with  the  rest.  Soon  even  the  last  wrig- 
gling remnant  disappeared,  though  the  struggle 
seemed  still  to  go  on    for  some  time   inside. 

Count  von  Goetzen  in  his  youth  made  a 
remarkable  journey  through  the  unexplored 
interior  of  Africa.  On  this  occasion  he  was 
the  discoverer  of  an  active  volcano.  He  wrote 
an  interesting  and  valuable  book  describing 
this  expedition. 

His  wife,  who  is  a  beautiful  woman,  is,  as 
I  have  stated  elsewhere,  an  American,  and 
is  profoundly  interested  in  all  her  husband's 
plans  for  and  work  in  East  Africa.  She  is 
of  great  assistance  to  him  by  the  charming 
way  in  which  she  administers  their  truly 
beautiful  home  and  dispenses  a  hospitality 
that  makes  Dar  Es  Salaam  famous  on  the  East 
Coast.' 

^  Since  writing  the  above,  the  count  has  returned  to  Germany, 
his  health  shattered  by  his  arduous  labors  in  German  East 
Africa. 

^36 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

One  of  the  many  interesting  things  I  saw 
in  Dar  Es  Salaam  was  what  they  call  a  "  ze- 
bride,"  a  cross  between  a  zebra  and  a  horse. 
This  was  a  young,  sturdy-looking  colt,  gam- 
boling about  with  its  zebra  mother,  the  latter 
quite  as  frisky  as  her  offspring.  The  stripes, 
so  striking  in  her  coat,  were  only  faintly  visible 
on  his  gray  sides.  His  sire  was  evident  in  the 
lines  of  his  head  and  withers.  His  maternal 
ancestry  was  clearly  to  be  traced  in  his  stocky 
flanks  and  rather  barrel-like  body. 

As  horses  are  very  difficult  to  raise  and 
keep  in  that  part  of  the  world,  if  a  workable 
animal  could  be  evolved  from  the  horse  and  the 
zebra,  which  is  indigenous,  it  would  be  a  most 
useful  and  valuable  evolution. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  horses  are  both  frail 
and  costly  in  tropical  Africa,  Countess  von 
Goetzen  had  a  smart-looking  mail  phaeton 
drawn  by  two  pretty  cream-colored  horses, 
and  there  were  a  good  many  other  neat  traps 
to  be  seen  any  pleasant  afternoon  tooling  over 
the  fine,  hard  roads ;  roads  bordered  and  shaded 
by  palms  or  mango-trees,  or  by  the  gorgeous 
239 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

"  flamboyant,"  whose  crimson,  bell-shaped 
blossoms  make  a  flaming  mass  of  color.  One 
of  the  prettiest  drives  is  that  under  the  feathery- 
hemlocks  along  by  the  sea,  with  the  waves 
lapping  the  sands  not  twenty  feet  away,  while 
the  intervening  beach  is  alive  and  rustling 
with  myriads  of  spider-like  crabs,  scampering 
sideways  with  incredible  swiftness.  These 
drives  are  the  more  noteworthy  as  in  the 
neighboring  colonies  the  residents  use  only 
rickshaws  or  trolleys. 

Through  all  my  memories  of  German  East 
Africa  —  among  the  pleasantest  of  our  trip  — 
comes  the  odor  of  some  tropical  flowering  shrub 
—  pungent,  aromatic,  rather  like  chillies  — 
that  grew  outside  of  our  windows ;  and  a  vivid 
sensation  of  the  all-pervading,  soaking,  suffo- 
cating heat;  a  heat  that  permeated  the  bril- 
liant days  —  except  for  the  few  hours  of  the 
afternoon  sea  breeze  —  and  drenched  the 
velvety,  fragrant,  tropical  nights  so  that 
when  we  arose  in  the  morning  we  left  the  damp 
outline  of  our  sleeping  selves  on  our  couches. 

The  impression  this  German  colony  left  on 
MO 


TO    DAR    ES    SALAAM 

me  was  of  an  intensely  energetic,  ambitious 
community,  whose  overmastering  desire  is  to 
outdo  the  English  in  their  hitherto  imdisputed 
field  as  the  world's  chief  colonizers ;  an  ambition 
the  English  do  not  yet  quite  realize  or  recognize. 
The  latter,  having  for  so  long  been  facile  prince ps 
in  this  line,  are  now  a  little  apt  to  take  it  easy, 
to  rest  on  their  laurels,  unwitting  of  the  com- 
petitor who  is  straining  every  nerve  and  every 
resource  to  pass  them  on  the  road.  With  the 
German  official  his  work  is  the  first  and  only 
consideration.  With  the  Englishman  all  over 
the  world  his  recreation  and  sport  are  a  close 
second  in  importance  to  his  official  duties. 
This  is  a  serious  element  of  weakness  and  one 
that  might  in  time  lose  this  people  their  place 
in  the  van  of  the  procession.  As  yet,  however, 
they  belong  there  at  the  head,  as  no  other 
nation  brings  such  a  kindliness,  tolerance,  and 
sense  of  justice  to  the  problem  of  handling 
inferior  races.  The  British  official  also  unites 
to  his  undeniable  ability  and  wide  experience 
a  sense  of  honor  that  is  incorruptible. 

But  all  these  five  charming  days  when  we 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

were  so  delightfully  entertained  on  shore,  our 
ship,  the  Kronprinz,  lay  out  in  the  harbor,  the 
windlasses  creaking  and  screeching  all  but  three 
out  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  the  iron  rails 
clanging  and  banging  with  incredible  clamor 
on  their  journey  from  the  hold  to  the  lighters 
moored  alongside.  For  those  of  the  passengers 
who  stayed  on  board  ship  the  time  was  a  dis- 
tressing wait.  At  length  the  cargo  was  de- 
livered, we  returned  to  our  cabins,  and  it  was 
up  anchor  and  away  to  Mozambique ! 

As  we  steamed  out  into  the  Indian  Ocean 
we  got  one  last  glimpse  of  the  governor's  palace. 
Like  a  vision  it  stood,  gleaming  white,  em- 
bowered in  palms,  while  near  it  on  the  shore 
the  exquisite  aquarium  nestled  at  the  end  of 
the  hemlock  walk.  Looking  back  a  few  minutes 
after  leaving  it,  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish 
the  entrance  to  Dar  Es  Salaam  harbor,  so 
enclosed  is  it  in  headlands  and  islands. 


^S 


CHAPTER    XI 

FROM    EAST   TO    SOUTH    AFRICA 

'T^HE  five  days  that  we  had  been  lying  in 
the  tranquil  landlocked  harbor  of  Dar 
Es  Salaam  a  lively  hurricane  had  been  rousing 
up  the  Indian  Ocean,  strewing  the  shores  of  the 
islands  and  mainland  down  towards  Mozam- 
bique with  wrecks,  so  that  when  at  length  we 
turned  southward  we  found  ourselves  in  the 
tail  end  of  this  storm  —  and  the  tail  was  still 
wagging.  Though  the  skies  were  clear  the  sea 
was  piled  high  with  great,  pale  green  waves  up 
which  we  climbed  and  down  which  we  slid 
till  we  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  Mozambique. 
Even  here  it  was  too  rough  to  go  ashore  in  the 
little  boats,  so  we  gazed  at  the  ancient,  cream- 
colored  fortress  (built  by  the  Portuguese  in  the 
time  of  the  redoubtable  Vasco  da  Gama,  who 
discovered  and  settled  Mozambique)  and  noted 
243 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

the  gay  colors  of  the  neat-looking  buildings 
on  the  water-front,  red,  blue  and  every  tone 
of  yellow,  and  in  a  few  hours  steamed  out  and 
away  for  Beira. 

Seven  years  ago,  when  the  railway  to  Salis- 
bury was  being  built,  Beira  was  an  important, 
hustling,  bustling  port  of  entry.  Tin  huts 
sprouted  in  a  night  like  white-ant  mushrooms. 
Even  some  very  nice  houses  were  put  up.  A 
veritable  boom  in  real  estate  took  place,  and, 
when  you  consider  that  nearly  every  other 
shanty  was  a  saloon,  and  that  all  did  a  brisk 
business,  you  can  get  some  idea  of  the  cheerful 
tone  that  prevailed.  To-day,  the  railway  being 
finished,  the  boom  has  collapsed.  The  Portu- 
guese government  has  placed  such  heavy  duties 
on  both  incoming  and  outgoing  goods  that  it  is 
said  Rhodesia  is  more  cheaply  reached  via 
Cape  Town.  This  has  stifled  commerce.  The 
doors  of  the  shanties  hang  open,  creaking  on 
rusty  hinges.  The  decent  houses  go  a-begging 
for  tenants.  The  saloons  still  flourish,  but  not 
with  their  former  eclat.  A  man  who  drinks 
from  despondency  is  never  so  exhilarating  as 
244 


FROM    EAST    TO    SOUTH    AFRICA 

he  who  imbibes  with  high  hopes.  And  the 
sand  on  which  the  town  is  laid  out,  that  shifting, 
impenetrable,  inexhaustible  medium,  is  fast 
creeping,  blowing,  drifting  up  to  swallow  and 
hide  the  pitiful  evidences  of  failure  and  collapse. 

It  was  Christmastide  when  we  w^ere  there, 
though  in  Beira  there  was  no  evidence  of  the 
season.  The  heat  was  intense,  glaring,  unre- 
mitting. No  church  was  to  be  seen;  there 
were  no  signs  of  festivity.  A  steaming  apathy 
pervaded  the  land  and  even  crept  across  the 
brassy  waters  to  our  ship,  lying  in  solitary 
state  in  the  harbor,  unloading  a  slim  cargo 
for  the  interior  country.  But  Christmas  is 
the  chief  festival  of  the  year  to  Germans,  and 
so  the  Kronprinz,  sailing  under  the  red,  white 
and  black  flag,  celebrated  it  in  due  form.  A 
gay  Christmas  tree,  —  brought  out  for  the  pur- 
pose from  the  fatherland,  —  a  souvenir  for 
each  guest,  speeches  and  toasts  made  the 
dining-saloon  an  oasis  of  cheer  in  as  un-Christ- 
massy  a  spot  as  could  be  found  on  the  broad 
earth's  surface  that  night. 

The  sea  had  subsided  by  the  time  we  steamed 
«45 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

out  and  away  for  Lorenco  Marques,  the  princi- 
pal port  in  Portuguese  East  Africa.  Unlike 
Beira,  Lorenco  Marques  has  thriven  and  grown 
in  the  last  six  years,  being  the  nearest  seaport 
to  the  Transvaal  and  having  received  a  big 
impetus  at  the  time  of  the  Boer  war.  Delagoa 
Bay,  on  which  the  town  is  situated,  is  a  fine 
harbor,  and  docks  have  been  built  alongside 
of  which  even  the  largest  ships  can  tmload. 
The  sanitary  condition  of  the  place  —  once 
notoriously  bad  —  has  been  much  improved. 
Pretty  houses  in  well-kept  gardens  now  stretch 
out  to  the  point  where  stands  the  lighthouse. 
The  roads  are  good.  An  excellent  system  of 
electric  trams  enables  one  to  go  all  over  the 
place.  The  Portuguese  currency  is  so  divided 
into  infinitesimal  fractions  that  even  a  short 
ride  costs  an  enormous  nimiber  of  res.  For  a 
circuit  of  the  town  I  believe  we  paid  nearly 
2,000  res.  A  glass  of  lemonade  taken  outside 
of  one  of  the  little  kiosks,  on  the  sunbaked, 
principal  square,  cost  another  500  res.  As  we 
sat  there  ladies  in  diaphanous  gowns,  carrying 
gay  parasols,  fluttered  by  in  rickshaws  drawn 
U6 


FROM  EAST  TO  SOUTH  AFRICA 

by  steaming  natives.  Portuguese  officers, 
undersized,  but  important  looking,  strolled 
about.  Residents,  and  passengers  from  the 
steamers  lying  in  harbor,  walked  up  and  down  in 
pith  helmets  and  light-colored  clothes,  for  it 
was  very,  very  warm.  In  the  flower  beds  that 
dotted  the  white  square,  poinsettias,  hibiscus, 
and  other  tropical  shrubs  flaunted  their  gor- 
geous hues.  Not  a  breath  of  air  came  to  us 
from  the  glassy  harbor,  where  with  much 
creaking  of  cranes  and  shouts  and  shrill  steam 
whistles,  a  half  a  dozen  steamers  were  imloading 
their  various  cargoes.  It  was  with  a  gasp  of 
relief  that  we  departed  by  the  night  train  for 
Johannesburg.  We  had  a  most  comfortable 
compartment  in  a  very  well-finished  car,  while 
an  excellent  dining-car  gave  us  good  a  la  carte 
meals  the  next  day. 

It  was  an  hour  after  sunset  and  we  could  see 
little  of  the  country  as  we  pulled  out  of  Lorenco 
Marques.  A  gigantic  crescent  moon  was  sinking 
low  on  the  western  horizon  and  shone  across  a 
flat,  marshy  land,  thickly  sprinkled  with  thorn 
bushes.     Whenever  we  stopped  at  the  lonely, 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGmVAYS 

infrequent  little  stations,  a  shrill  chorus  of 
frogs  filled  the  night,  while  hot,  damp  odors 
were  wafted  in  from  the  dreary,  untenanted 
waste. 

We  roused  ourselves  at  early  dawn  the 
following  morning  to  look  out  at  the  wild, 
weird,  misty  mountains  that  mark  a  remarkable 
ascent  to  the  high  veldt  at  a  place  called 
"  Waterfallboven."  Great,  bare,  rounded  peaks, 
wreathed  in  trailing  mists,  towered  in  chaos  on 
every  side.  The  air  was  nipping  and  eager.  In 
an  incredibly  short  time  we  rose  nearly  six  thou- 
sand feet  to  the  vast  plain  of  Central  South 
Africa.  We  were  in  the  Transvaal,  and  from 
this  point  to  Johannesburg  the  route  was 
marked  by  block-houses,  many  of  which, 
shattered  by  shells,  were  roofless  ruins,  dreary 
mementoes  of  war.  Although  the  high  veldt  is 
supposed  to  be  an  immense  level  plain,  it  is 
in  reality  a  very  broken  plateau.  In  parts 
steep  kopjes  rise  in  every  direction,  w^hile  in 
other  parts  the  land  rolls  in  huge  undulations 
of  treeless  green.  The  peculiarity  of  the  South 
African  kopje  is  that  it  seems  to  be  a  creation 
MS 


FROM  EAST  TO  SOUTH  AFRICA 

of  caprice.  No  two  run  parallel  to  each  other. 
They  sprout  up  without  symmetry  or  co- 
relation,  disregarding  all  the  laws  of  erosion 
or  construction  which  make  hills  in  other 
lands  into  ranges.  Innumerable  birds,  glossy 
black  of  plumage,  with  long,  unmanageable, 
waving  tails,  rose  from  the  high  grass  on  either 
side  of  the  track,  fluttered  in  uncertain,  awk- 
ward flight  and  then  sank  down  again.  They 
are  peculiar  to  the  veldt  and  only  grow  these 
trailing,  incommoding  plumes  in  the  mating 
season. 

As  we  passed  Pretoria,  deep  embedded  in  its 
heavy  foliage,  we  noted  the  extensive  fortifica- 
tions built  by  the  Boers,  frowning  from  lofty 
kopjes  and  commanding  a  great  tract  of  terri- 
tory. Long  before  we  got  to  Johannesburg 
we  saw  the  tall  chimneys  and  buildings  of  the 
mines  which  stretch  along  the  famous  gold- 
bearing  reef,  or  Rand,  for  fifty  miles  and  more, 
with  Johannesburg  in  the  centre  of  the  line; 
while  the  huge  piles  of  "  tailings  "  gleamed 
like  snow  in  the  afternoon  sun. 

It  was  quite  exciting  to  be  once  more  in  a  big 
251 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

and  bustling  city.  As  my  brother's  automobile 
whisked  us  from  the  station  to  his  home  on 
Hospital  Hill,  overlooking  the  town,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  I  had  never  before  seen  so  many 
people  or  so  many  vehicles  hurrying  here  and 
there.  As  we  cut  around  corners,  at  what 
seemed  to  us  —  used  to  the  more  leisurely 
gharries  and  trolleys  of  East  Africa  —  a  fearful 
speed,  I  held  on  to  my  seat  and  my  hat  with  a 
fear  greater  than  any  I  had  known  in  face  of 
lions  or  other  perils  in  the  tropics. 

Johannesburg  has  changed  very  much  in 
character  and  tone  since  the  days  of  the  Boer 
regime.  The  old,  easy-going  spirit  of  prosperity 
and  high  hope  is  gone.  The  people  are  restless, 
discontented  and  much  inclined  to  despond. 
They  must  sometimes  feel  as  if  they  had  ex- 
changed King  Log  for  King  Stork.  The  Boer 
officials  were  a  corruptible,  untrustworthy  lot, 
no  doubt,  while  the  English  officials  are  just  the 
contrary;  but  they  are  as  numerous  as  were 
the  locusts  in  Egypt.  There  are  said  to  be  one 
for  every  four  inhabitants  of  the  country.  Of 
course  a  people  so  ridden  with  officialdom  be- 
262 


FROM  EAST  TO  SOUTH  AFRICA 

comes  irritated,  impatient,  exhausted.  But 
all  the  depression  which  at  present  is  the  pre- 
vailing tone  there  cannot  be  laid  to  this.  The 
mines  have  been  over-capitaHzed.  In  order 
to  work  them  to  sufficient  profit  to  support 
this  heavy  financial  burden  the  mine-owners 
must  have  cheap  labor.  The  Kaffirs  cannot  be 
induced  to  return  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
operate  the  mines,  so  Chinese  labor  has  been 
imported.  In  many  ways  this  is  detrimental  to 
the  country  at  large.  They  are  a  menace  to 
public  safety.  They  take  out  of  the  country 
much  of  the  money  they  earn;  and,  since  the 
time  of  the  Helots  in  Greece,  it  has  never  been 
found  to  the  advantage  of  any  nation  to  have 
its  tasks  done  by  outsiders  Those  not  directly 
interested  in  the  mines  are  vigorously  protesting 
against  this  importation.  The  mine-owners 
are  as  strenuous  in  maintaining  their  position, 
even  threatening  to  close  every  mine  on  the 
Rand.  Downing  Street,  ten  thousand  miles 
away,  is  prone  to  irritate  both  parties  to  the 
controversy  by  tactless  interference,  and  the 
result  is  a  state  of  seething  discontent  and 
25S 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

a  depression  which  spreads  from  the  financial 
to  the  social  life.  The  clear  warm  sun  and  the 
bracing  winds  of  the  high  veldt  shine  and  blow 
on  a  distracted,  unhappy  community  of  people 
gathered  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  for 
Johannesburg  is  essentially  cosmopolitan. 
Americans,  Germans,  Dutch,  Italian,  French, 
Scandinavians,  all  mingle  in  the  life  there  with 
the  English  and  Boers.  While  the  chosen 
people  are  so  thick  that  the  town  is  often  called 
Jew-hannesburg. 

The  centre  of  the  city  is  the  huge  market- 
place, flanked  at  one  end  by  the  big  post-office. 
On  this  dusty  square  congregate  on  certain  days 
of  the  week  the  Boer  farmers  of  the  outlying 
district,  who,  as  they  express  it,  trek  into  town 
with  their  big,  slow  teams  of  oxen,  to  exchange 
their  produce  for  various  commodities.  They 
make  quaint  and  picturesque  groups.  The 
place  always  swarms  with  Kaffirs,  generally 
clustered  about  some  Jew  auctioneer,  who  is 
selling  off  old,  suspicious-looking  beds,  and 
other  imsavory  truck  to  eager  bidders.  The 
South  African  Kaffir  is  very  different  from  the 
^54> 


FROM    EAST    TO    SOUTH    AFRICA 

Central  African  negro,  both  physically  and 
mentally.  Modified  by  climate  and  by  the  fact 
that  food  is  not  to  be  had  for  the  picking, 
he  is  of  a  more  stalwart  build  and  more  ener- 
getic disposition.  Rightly  handled  much  work 
can  be  got  out  of  him.  He  is  as  a  rule  tall, 
well  made,  and  a  chocolate  brown  in  color. 
But  the  savage  is  close  under  the  skin,  in  spite 
of  over  a  htmdred  years  of  white  dominion. 
The  rickshaw-boys  of  Johannesburg  delight 
to  deck  themselves  out  in  most  fantastic  attire. 
Feathers  in  their  hair,  waving  skirts  of  many 
hued,  fringed  tissue-paper,  rows  of  jingling  bells 
on  their  bare  legs,  and  a  lot  of  other  queer 
devices  are  the  means  they  employ  to  attract 
attention.  There  is  a  curious  convention  about 
the  use  of  rickshaws.  Whereas  in  Johannesburg 
it  is  not  at  all  "  the  thing  "  to  ride  in  them, 
it  is  the  universal  custom  in  Durban  and  in  all 
East  African  towns  But  this  may  be  because 
cabs  are  plentiful  and  comparatively  cheap  in 
Johannesburg  and  not  in  the  other  places. 

The   principal   business    highway,    Commis- 
sioner Street,  is  lined  with  fine  office  buildings, 
265 


UNIYERSrrV  OF  CALIFORNIA 

flICPARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ENGINEIERIS^t?: 
HFRKELEY.  CALIFORNIA 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

those  of  the  older  types  having  arcades  over  the 
sidewalks,  which  make  a  pleasant  shade  in 
the  fierce  African  sunlight. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  the  city  the  favorite 
residence  portions  are  situated  on  overlooking 
heights.  Here  is  to  be  found  every  style  of 
dwelling,  from  the  low,  cosy,  one-storied  bunga- 
low, to  the  Elizabethan  mansion,  all  being 
set  in  charming  gardens,  bright  with  flowers 
and  enclosed  with  high  green  hedges.  The 
most  desirable  residence  portion,  Parktown, 
has  an  amazing  number  of  really  beautiful 
houses,  which  have  all  been  built  since  the 
war.  Of  imposing  architecture,  they  are  perched 
on  splendid  sites  overlooking  the  wide,  wonder- 
ful stretch  of  country  northward  towards 
Pretoria. 

The  mine-owners  have  planted  in  different 
directions  vast  groves,  or  plantations  of  Aus- 
tralian gum-trees,  eucalyptus,  and  other  quick- 
growing  trees  to  provide  timber  for  the  mine 
shafts.  Roads  wind  through  these  and  give 
delightful,  shady  drives  to  the  Jo'burgers  (for, 
with  an  American  tendency  to  brevity,  the 
256 


FROM    EAST    TO    SOUTH    AFRICA 

name  is  often  so  shortened).  The  roads  are 
the  rich  African  red  clay.  The  woods  are  of  all 
shades  of  green  from  the  silver  shimmering 
gray  of  the  young  gum-trees  to  the  dense  black 
of  pines. 

Through  unexpected  openings  one's  breath 
is  taken  away  by  distant  vistas  of  the  wide, 
sunny  veldt  gleaming  with  all  the  gorgeous 
colors  of  noon  or  sunset.  To  skim  through  these 
wooded  glades  in  one  of  the  swift  automobiles 
—  of  which  there  seem  to  be  thousands  —  and 
then  to  dash  out  across  the  breezy  veldt 
is  one  of  the  chief  pleasures  of  the  place.  The 
air  is  always  intoxicating,  the  altitude,  5,700 
feet,  causing  this,  and  the  wonderful  sense  of 
space  and  freedom,  with  the  great  dome  of 
sky  overhead,  cannot  fail  to  be  exhilarating. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  place  is  wrong.  An 
exclusively  money-seeking  community  cannot 
develop  any  fine  tone.  On  the  one  hand  the 
mine-owners  are  seeking  to  foster  their  industry 
at  the  expense  of  the  country,  while  on  the 
other  the  British  government  is  hampering  and 
weighing  it  down  with  a  cumbersome  officialdom 
257 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

most  exasperating  to  the  many  alien  elements 
struggling  to  make  a  living  there.  The  problem 
will  doubtless  work  itself  out  through  the  right 
to  self-government  which  has  now  been  given 
the  country,  which  right  may  foster  a  public 
spirit  and  disinterested  affection  for  the  place 
now  utterly  lacking.  But  there  are  many  dark 
days  ahead  of  this  once  brilHant  commtmity 
before  it  shall  stand  on  its  feet  on  solid  ground. 
That  it  will  do  so  seems  beyond  a  doubt,  though 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  old  feverish  days  of 
boom  and  speculation  will  never  return. 


S58 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    RAND    CHINESE 

ILTAVING  expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  much- 
talked  of  Chinese  mine- workers,  we  were 
taken  one  day  to  the  Simmer  and  Jack,  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  Rand  mines,  employing 
I  don't  know  how  many  thousands  of  celestials. 
The  compound  where  they  were  housed,  fed 
and  cared  for  generally  was  a  huge  enclosure 
containing  many  buildings,  comprising  kitchens, 
living-rooms,  sleeping  quarters,  hospital,  and 
offices  for  those  in  charge  of  this  alien  labor. 

On  the  way  to  the  mine,  whither  we  went  in 
a  motor,  we  passed  straggling  groups  of  Chinese, 
the  most  forbidding,  uncanny  gathering  of 
mortals  I  have  ever  seen.  Their  attire  and 
general  get-up  would  have  been  ludicrously 
fantastic  had  it  not  been  for  the  soulless, 
sinister  human  masks  that  looked  at  us  with 
261 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

gleaming,  glancing,  slanting  eyes.  The  types 
were  astonishing,  both  in  number  and  variety, 
but  all  had  one  characteristic  expression  — 
namely,  inscrutability.  Fat,  sleek-faced  coolies 
from  South  China  mingled  with  gaunt  speci- 
mens from  the  north,  where  they  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  Russian  Cossack,  or  Cal- 
muck.  The  dress  was  wonderful  in  its  infinite 
variety,  and  extraordinary  mingling  of  colors 
and  fashions.  But  the  effect  was  rather  appall- 
ing in  its  suggestion  of  a  fateful  race  of  whose 
potentialities  the  rest  of  the  world  knows  so  little. 

It  is  the  wandering  bands  who  have  nm 
away  from  their  respective  mines  that  terrorize 
the  outlying  country  about  Johannesburg, 
pillaging,  burning  and  attacking  defenceless 
residents,  so  that  many  a  lonely  household 
has  had  to  break  up  and  send  the  women  and 
children  to  the  town,  while  the  men  of  the  family 
look  out  for  themselves. 

The  Chinese,  however,  that  we  saw  in  the 

Simmer  and  Jack  compound  seemed  a  quiet, 

orderly,  biddable  lot,  while  their  quarters  and 

food  must  have  been  far  better  and  cleaner 

«62 


THE    RAND    CHINESE 

than  anything  they  had  ever  known  in  any 
previous  condition  of  Hfe.  In  the  big  kitchens 
huge  caldrons  of  soup  and  of  rice  bubbled  on 
the  fires,  while  the  long  tables  were  piled  high 
with  meats  and  fresh  vegetables  being  prepared 
in  most  appetizing  messes.  There  were  also 
kitchens  set  apart  where  they  could  do  their 
own  cooking,  and  we  saw  many  making  deli- 
cious looking  pastries  and  patties  for  them- 
selves. In  the  sleeping-quarters  were  built  rows 
of  low  platforms,  each  Chinaman  having  a 
little  square  space  to  himself,  generally  en- 
closed by  curtains  of  some  flowered  print,  or 
cheap  white  stuff.  In  the  enclosures  were 
gathered  a  curious  collection  of  treasures; 
perhaps  a  Buddha,  or  Chinese  god  enshrined 
with  fancy  picture  cards  or  tinsel,  or  a  paltry 
something  made  in  Birmingham.  Everything 
was  clean,  airy  and  sanitary.  The  charge  of 
ill-treatment  or  slavery  falls  flat  when  con- 
fronted with  existing  conditions.  The  dangers 
in  the  experiment  lie  entirely  outside  the  com- 
pound, and  menace  the  coimtry,  not  the  aliens 
imported  into  it. 

263 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

In  the  operation  of  most  of  the  mines  of  the 
famous  Witwatersrand  (White-water  reef)  the 
task  is  curiously  divided  among  four  great 
nationalities.  The  English  own  them;  the 
Jews  finance  them;  as  a  rule  the  engineering 
corps  is  composed  of  Americans;  while  the 
manual  labor  is  done  by  Chinese.  Of  course 
there  are  exceptions.  Some  of  the  mines  are 
worked  by  Kaffirs,  and  some  have  English  or 
German  engineers;  while  some  of  the  active 
financiers  are  of  various  nationalities.  But  the 
above  is  the  usual  and  very  characteristic  divi- 
sion of  labor.  Most  of  the  American  engineers 
are  Calif omians,  or  have  had  their  early  train- 
ing in  the  mines  out  in  the  western  part  of  our 
cotintry.  This  makes  an  important  colony  of 
Americans  in  Johannesburg.  An  energetic  and 
forceful  element  they  are,  meddling  little 
actively  in  politics,  but  indirectly  influencing 
the  community  in  the  direction  of  absolute 
local  freedom,  and  in  no  small  degree  responsible 
for  the  intolerance  of  outside  interference  which 
characterizes  the  place.  Probably  in  none  of 
the  British  dependencies  is  there  so  much  dis- 
S64 


a* 
H 


THE    RAND    CHINESE 

affection  as  in  South  Africa.  England  holds 
these  colonies  by  a  very  frail  thread.  When 
the  controversy  as  to  the  employment  of 
Chinese  labor  was  most  acute  and  the  home 
government  —  the  newly  arrived  liberal  party 
—  issued  the  statement  that  it  would  forth- 
with stop  any  further  importation  of  Chinese, 
both  sides  to  the  dispute  in  the  Transvaal 
promptly  joined  forces  and  vehemently  pro- 
tested against  such  unwarranted  interference. 
Far  more  important  than  any  industrial  prob- 
lem was  the  question  of  their  right  to  manage 
their  own  affairs.  Again,  when,  a  month  or 
so  later,  the  same  government  forbade  the 
execution  of  some  native  rebels  in  Natal,  the 
whole  of  South  Africa  rose  in  protest.  The 
Natal  ministry  resigned,  and  from  Rhodesia  to 
the  Cape  the  country  seethed  with  rage.  The 
officials  in  England  had  finally  to  recede  from 
their  stand. 

The  present  governor  of  the  Transvaal  and 
Orange  River  Colonies,  the  successor  to  Lord 
Milner,  is  Lord  Selbome,  who  has  proved  him- 
self a  persona  grata  to  the  conflicting  elements. 
267 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

Lord  Milner  did  excellently  in  the  days  when 
war  was  rending  the  land.  He  had  a  firm  hand 
and  a  dogged  tenacity  of  purpose.  But  when 
peace  descended  and  tact  and  conciHation 
became  necessary  he  was  found  wanting.  He 
is  a  German  by  birth  and  early  training  and 
the  stubborn  Teuton  in  him  would  not  adapt 
itself  to  altered  conditions.  His  going  w^as 
almost  as  welcome  as  his  coming  had  been. 

Lord  Selbome  is  a  typical  Britisher,  upright, 
serene,  with  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  not  very 
quick  or  brilliant,  but  an  excellent  man  to  win 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  parties.  His 
wife,  who  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Marquis 
of  Salisbury  and  therefore  one  of  the  famous 
Cecil  family,  has  done  much  to  raise  the  tone 
of  social  life  in  Johannesburg.  Under  the 
preceding  regime,  with  its  bachelor  chief,  the 
social  standard  was  not  very  high.  Undesirable 
elements  crept  into  undesirable  notoriety,  but 
Lady  Selbome 's  gracious  firmness  and  tact 
are  altering  all  this. 

Looking  back  on  Johannesburg,  I  find  that 
it  left  an  impression  of  dust  and  sunshine, 
£68 


THE    RAND    CHINESE 

smartly  dressed  people  whizzing  about  in 
automobiles,  on  broad,  straight  streets ;  up  long, 
steep  hills,  with  glimpses  of  pretty  homes  in 
lovely  gardens  on  either  hand,  while  ever  and 
anon  came  flashes  of  the  gorgeous  veldt  at 
street  ends;  that  great,  broad  bosom  of  mother 
earth  that  cradles  so  genially  the  most  material- 
istic and  money-seeking  community  in  the 
world.  The  savage  solitudes  of  Central  Africa 
are  in  some  ways  preferable  to  this  to  one  not 
hunting  for  gold,  and  it  was  with  small  regret 
that  we  left  Jo'burg  and  turned  once  more 
northward  via  Lorenco  Marques  and  the  won- 
derful East  Coast. 

Our  passage  had  been  taken  in  one  of  the 
first-class  ships  of  the  German  line  that  con- 
trols most  of  the  traffic  on  the  East  Coast. 
But  at  that  time  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  who 
was  making  a  semi-royal  tour  of  South  Africa, 
announced  his  intention  of  returning  home  by 
this  line  and  route  the  following  month.  As 
the  steamer  which  should  have  sailed  at  the 
date  he  selected  was  one  of  the  smaller,  less 
desirable  ones,  the  company,  with  a  laudable 
269 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

desire  to  accommodate  royalty,  detained  and 
substituted  the  boat  we  had  expected  to  take, 
and  put  in  its  place  a  small,  ignoble  craft,  which 
was  taken  off  what  is  called  the  intermediate 
or  second-class  line,  an  act  of  doubtful  business 
honor,  as  no  refund  was  made  to  those  who, 
having  paid  for  good  accommodations,  were 
forced  to  take  bad  ones. 

We  spent  thirty-three  days  on  this  3,400- 
tonner,  and  experienced  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
primitive  travel.  There  was  no  ice  machine  or 
cold  storage  room,  so  all  our  meat  was  carried 
alive  on  the  forward  deck  and  killed  as  required. 
As  this  deck  also  carried  the  motley  crowd  of 
fourth-class  passengers,  natives  of  all  the  east 
provinces  of  Africa,  India,  Arabia,  and  the  many 
strange  lands  of  the  Orient,  the  scene  was  bizarre 
in  the  extreme.  On  one  side  in  rudely  con- 
structed pens  some  half  a  dozen  bony  oxen  lowed 
unhappily.  Near  them  queerly  shaped  sheep, 
black  of  head  and  dingy  white  of  body,  bleated 
plaintively,  while  from  their  coops  the  pigeons, 
chickens,  hens  and  roosters  cooed,  chirped, 
cackled  and  crowed  dismally.  The  gaudily 
270 


THE    RAND    CHINESE 

colored  draperies  of  that  wonderful  assemblage 
of  tropical  and  Eastern  people  lent  a  splendor  of 
color  to  the  small  space.  They  spread  out  the 
gay  mats  and  quilts  that  made  their  bedding, 
and  establishing  themselves  thereon,  settled 
down  to  enjoy  the  voyage,  their  simple  cooking 
utensils  at  their  elbows.  Men  and  women 
smoked  cigarettes,  or  chewed  betel-nut  or 
other  delicacies,  or  thrummed  little,  silent 
mouth-organs.  The  women  nursed  their  en- 
chanting little  brown  or  black  babies,  or  dis- 
cussed among  themselves  African  fashions,  or 
flirted  most  Orientally  with  the  men,  flashing 
brilliant  teeth  at  them  and  exchanging  chaff 
in  rich,  penetrating  voices. 

Within  a  few  feet  of  these  domestic  and  social 
scenes,  which  took  place  on  the  great,  central 
hatchways,  the  ship's  butcher  would  lead  out 
the  huge,  slow,  wide-homed  ox.  Planting  it 
in  the  small  open  space  permitted  by  the 
crowd,  he  would  lift  the  heavy  mallet  and, 
with  a  great  swing  of  his  arm,  fell  the 
poor  brute  with  a  crashing  blow.  Generally 
a  second  and  a  third  were  necessary  to  still 
271 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

the  convulsive  quiverings.  The  black  and 
brown  races  eyed  the  scene  impassively,  un- 
curiously.  A  small  picaninny,  nursing  at  his 
mother's  breast,  rolled  his  big  eyes  over  his 
shoulders  to  take  in  the  spectacle  without 
removing  his  lips.  The  skinning,  dissection 
and  entire  preparing  of  the  animal  took  place 
then  and  there,  and  the  carcass  hung  on  the 
davits  till  the  cook  needed  it.  Do  you  wonder 
that  I  ate  neither  beef  nor  mutton  on  that  trip? 
Above,  on  the  first-class  deck,  the  passengers 
presented  nearly  as  mixed  an  assemblage  of 
nationalities  as  there  was  forward.  English, 
Scotch,  Irish,  Germans,  French,  Portuguese, 
Italians  and  South  Africans,  all  fraternized, 
while  my  mother  and  I  were  the  only  Americans 
on  board.  There  were  some  little  pet  dogs  that 
scampered  about;  also  some  monkeys,  who 
occasionally  escaped  from  their  leashes  or 
cages  and  rioted  among  us.  A  couple  of  suffer- 
ing Portuguese  infants  filled  the  air  with  their 
wailings.  The  nurse  who  accompanied  them 
on  board,  but  would  go  no  further,  was  a  study 
in  unique  attire.  He  was  black  as  the  ace  of 
S72 


THE    RAND    CHINESE 

spades,  with  an  expression  of  severe  dignity. 
He  wore  a  high  white  collar,  and  white  shirt, 
a  neat  black  coat  and  waistcoat,  and  a  bright 
red  tie.  But,  in  lieu  of  trousers,  a  crimson 
bandana  handkerchief,  spotted  with  black  and 
white  blobs,  was  tied  about  his  waist,  falling 
pretty  far  short  of  his  knees,  and  was  the  only 
covering  of  his  rather  bandy  legs.  His  place 
was  taken  by  a  little  fat  African  boy  of  about 
twelve,  who  wandered  about  the  ship  clad  in 
a  ragged  shirt  and  what  might  have  been  a  dish- 
cloth about  his  waist.  His  method  with  the 
Portuguese  infant,  whom  he  carried  in  his 
arms  all  day,  was  to  shake  it  up  and  down  vio- 
lently when  it  cried,  which  it  did  vigorously 
and  frequently.  I  suppose  it  was  somewhat 
on  the  principle  of 

"  Be  gentle  to  your  little  boy 

And  beat  him  when  he  sneezes. 
He  only  does  it  to  annoy 
Because  he  knows  it  teases." 

Like  the  baby  in  "  Alice  in  Wonderland,"  this 
one  looked  as  if  it  might  turn  into  a  pig  at  any 
moment. 

273 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

At  night  the  wretched  African  nurse  curled 
up  on  the  floor  and  went  to  sleep  in  any  corridor 
where  slumber  happened  to  overtake  him.  He 
always  looked  the  picture  of  woe.  I  do  not 
think  he  got  enough  to  eat,  and  I  know  his 
mistress  was  not  kind  to  him  and  gave  him 
many  a  blow.  His  large,  heavy  head,  awkward 
body,  and  melancholy  eyes  left  an  imhappy 
memory. 

As  we  steamed  up  the  glassy  stretches  of  the 
Indian  Ocean  with  this  motley  boat-load, 
and,  leaning  on  the  ship's  railing,  I  heard  the 
speech  of  most  of  the  civilized  nations  of  Europe, 
mingling  with  the  many  African  tongues  from 
below,  while  dogs  barked,  monkeys  jabbered, 
parrots  screamed,  oxen  lowed,  hens  cackled, 
sheep  bleated,  and  pigeons  cooed,  it  seemed 
as  if  the  ship  were  a  travelling  Berlitz  School 
of  Languages,  with  a  barnyard  attachment, 
or  a  second  and  more  wonderful  Noah's  Ark. 
And,  startled  by  our  approach,  flying-fishes 
sprang  across  the  water  in  silver  flashes  by  the 
myriad,  or  porpoises  played  about  us,  while 
in  the  harbors  sharks  floated  around  us,  like 
274 


THE    RAKD    CHINESE 

pale,  gray  shadows  waiting  for  the  refuse  from 
the  kitchens,  eying  us  greedily  meanwhile. 

And  those  tropical  nights  on  deck  —  for  the 
cabins  were  small  and  stuffy  —  shall  I  ever 
forget  the  silent  stretches  from  midnight  to 
dawn?  The  wind  blew  softly  over  the  sea,  the 
ship  rose  and  fell  on  the  long,  slow  swells, 
the  stars  glowed  with  a  splendor  we  never  see 
in  the  north.  Silent  forms  were  stretched  out 
on  mattresses  laid  on  the  deck,  for  most  of 
the  passengers  preferred  the  open  air  to  the 
closeness  below.  On  the  forward,  lower  deck 
a  huddled  mass  of  colored  humanity,  shrouded 
in  strange  draperies,  wrapped  in  heavy  slumber, 
lay  still  as  the  dead.  Sleep  touched  me  lightly, 
not  as  it  does  in  my  own  downy  couch.  At  the 
earliest  streak  of  dawn  on  the  eastern  horizon 
I  would  wake  up  and  watch  the  light  strike 
the  zenith  and  creep  down  to  the  wide  horizon 
in  soft  splendor.  On  the  lower  decks  the  human 
bundles  would  unroll.  Some  would  clean  their 
teeth  with  split  sticks.  Others  would  gird 
themselves  in  their  gorgeous  draperies.  The 
morning  toilet  of  those  on  that  lower  deck 
276 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

was  simple  and  interesting.  In  the  steamer 
chairs  near  me  dozing  forms  began  to  stir, 
though  many  slept  until  the  sun  was  up.  But 
these  missed  the  gorgeous  sunrises  of  the 
tropics,  when  sky  and  sea  would  be  turned  to 
gold  and  crimson,  as  the  new  day  came  with  a 
leap. 

At  six  o'clock  early  coffee,  served  on  the 
decks,  was  partaken  of  with  that  informality 
which  marks  Oriental  travel.  Then  the  women 
descended  to  their  cabins  to  get  ready  for  the 
delicious  salt  bath  which  renews  vigor  in  those 
latitudes,  while  the  men  stayed  on  deck  to  go 
through  their  exercises  and  morning  walks 
before  dressing.  And  thus  began  the  ship's 
day. 


«76 


street  in  Zanzibar 


Native  Market  in  Zanzibar  (Through  Which  Now  Runs  the  Train) 


CHAPTER    XIII 

MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

'TpO  turn  back  on  our  tracks:  Lorenco 
"^  Marques  lay  sweltering  in  damp  torridity 
behind  us  when  w^e  left  Delagoa  Bay  about  ten 
o'clock  on  a  February  morning.  It  was  not 
until  we  were  fairly  under  way  in  the  Indian 
Ocean  that  we  got  rid  of  the  sense  of  oppressive 
land  heat,  and  could  revel  in  the  sea  breezes 
which  seldom  fail  on  those  broad  stretches. 

As  we  lay  two  nights  later  in  the  harbor  at 
Beira  —  for  there  was  nothing  in  this  dreary 
spot  to  tempt  one  ashore  —  a  strange  chant, 
monotonous,  rhythmical,  apparently  coming 
from  the  water  and  proceeding  along  the  lower 
deck  to  the  forward  hatch,  drew  us  to  the  over- 
looking front  rail  of  our  deck.  There  in  the 
glare  of  the  lights  turned  on  the  loading  crews 
we  saw  one  of  the  curious  sights  of  an  East 
279 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

Coast  trip:  an  ivory-bearing  caravan  bringing 
its  load  on  board  the  ship.  A  line  of  turbaned 
men,  each  carrying  on  his  right  shoulder  a  huge 
elephant  tusk,  came  up  from  a  dhow  lying 
alongside,  and,  keeping  time  to  their  own  chant, 
marched  to  a  small  opening  in  the  forward  part 
of  the  ship,  where  they  slid  their  loads  down 
to  some  invisible  recipient.  We  counted 
nearly  fifty  of  these  tusks,  some  so  long  and  so 
heavy  as  to  take  two  bearers.  Their  task  done, 
the  carriers  united  in  a  queer,  shuffling  dance, 
evidently  a  part  of  the  performance.  Probably 
their  song  recited  the  dangers  of  the  chase 
which  had  yielded  up  this  rich  haul.  Think 
of  what  getting  this  load  of  ivory  meant;  the 
many  perils,  the  courage,  brutality,  skill,  suffer- 
ing and  discomfort  in  dark  jungles  and  savage 
wildernesses ! 

The  only  other  incident  of  note  at  Beira 
was  that  we  shipped  as  fellow  passengers  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  English  generals,  and 
also,  that  rather  unusual  combination,  an 
Italian  globe-trotter.  These  with  a  Scotch 
merchant  from  Singapore  and  his  wife  from 
280 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

Glasgow,  made  up  our  table,  and  gave  a  wide 
variety  to  the  talk.  The  dining-saloon  was 
small,  the  food  was  atrociously  bad,  but  through 
the  ports  one  could  see  the  moon  shining  on 
the  sea,  while  from  the  lower  forward  deck 
came  the  muffled  throb  of  a  tom-tom  accom- 
panying a  weird,  minor  crooning  song  from  some 
of  the  fourth-class  passengers,  who  seemed  to 
be  voicing  all  the  despair  of  Africa.  So  vogue 
la  galere!  —  who  would  not  rather  sail  the  trop- 
ical seas  in  the  rottenest  craft  afloat  than  cross 
the  Atlantic  in  the  finest  ocean  greyhound? 

It  was  afternoon  when  we  glided  into  the 
harbor  of  Mozambique,  rounding  the  point 
where  the  old  fort  rises  from  the  green  waters. 
A  most  picturesque  and  ancient  landmark  it 
is,  having  been  built  in  fifteen  himdred  and 
something  by  the  Portuguese,  who  were  then 
the  great  navigators  of  the  world,  at  the  height 
of  their  power. 

On  our  first  visit  to  this  port  it  had  been 

too  rough  to  land  comfortably,  so  this  time  we 

gladly  accepted  the  captain's  offer  to  use  the 

ship's  pinnace  and  go  ashore.     The  water-front 

281 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

of  Mozambique  is  qiiite  imposing,  with  a  long, 
modem-looking  pier  running  into  the  harbor, 
while  a  fine  church,  and  some  new  red  brick 
buildings  front  you  on  landing.  These  are 
flanked  to  the  north  by  a  pretty,  green 
avenue  of  trees  leading  to  the  fort,  and 
on  the  south  by  some  picturesque  cream, 
blue  and  pink  houses.  But,  walking  past 
the  red  buildings  to  the  centre  of  the  town 
—  a  dry,  dusty,  open  square  —  brought  us  to 
a  realizing  sense  of  the  utter  deadness  of  the 
place.  A  few  imdersized  Portuguese  wan- 
dered listlessly  about.  An  occasional  native 
in  long  white  gown,  or  girt  in  a  bright  print, 
sauntered  idly  by.  The  low,  open  shops  dis- 
played a  hopeless  array  of  granite  ware,  pots, 
canned  goods  and  cheap  calicoes.  Oddly 
enough,  connecting  the  East  and  the  West  by 
an  imexplained  link,  in  the  centre  of  this  prin- 
cipal piazza  stood  a  bronze  statue  of  the  tradi- 
tional North  American  Indian,  while  in  a  small 
adjacent  open  square  was  another  of  an  Indian 
woman.  There  was  no  explanatory  inscription 
on  the  pedestals,  nor  could  our  Portuguese 
S82 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

fellow  passengers  give  us  any  account  of  the 
inspiration  of  these  civic  ornaments.  It  was 
a  silent  reminder  to  us  Americans  of  our  debt 
to  the  remote  Portuguese  explorers. 

It  was  weary  work  strolling  about  the  neat, 
well-swept  and  deserted  streets.  There  were 
none  of  the  cheerful  little  kiosks  which,  in 
Lorenco  Marques,  give  one  a  chance  to  sit  down 
in  the  shade,  or  of  the  squalid  saloons  that  send 
forth  their  alcoholic  odors  into  the  hot  streets 
of  Beira.  Every  shutter  in  every  window  in 
every  house  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  was 
closed.  The  buildings  were  two-storied  and  of 
stucco  construction,  well  preserved,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  two-thirds  of  them  are  said  to  be 
tenantless. 

Discouraged  by  the  silence  and  solitude,  we 
turned  away  from  the  apathetic  town  and 
strolled  out  to  the  fort,  the  way  leading  us 
under  some  unknown  trees  that  grew  from  the 
white  sand,  their  gray-green,  spiked  leaves 
casting  a  pale,  but  grateful  shade.  Inside  the 
courtyard  at  the  fort  the  paved  path  led  up 
to  a  very  fine  entrance  with  the  Portuguese 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

arms  in  richly  carved  stone  over  the  gates.  A 
friendly  sentinel  gave  an  air  of  intense  animation 
to  the  scene  by  walking  up  and  down  almost 
briskly.  It  was  a  very  paintable  moment. 
Time  has  given  the  old  fortress  the  mellowest, 
richest  golden  tones.  Some  gorgeous  trop- 
ical shrubs  flowered  in  the  court.  The  waters 
of  the  bay  glittered  in  the  light  of  the  setting 
sun.  To  the  east,  behind  the  fort,  the  Indian 
Ocean  glared  pale  green,  and  dashed  its  white 
foam  against  encircling  coral  reefs.  A  native 
woman,  in  scant  draperies  of  deep  flame  color, 
stood  like  a  bronze  statue,  poising  an  earthen- 
ware water- jar  on  her  head  and  watching  us. 
It  was  the  breathless  moment  between  day  and 
night  when  the  wind  is  waiting  new  orders 
to  blow.  One  felt  the  spirit  of  Africa,  the  dark, 
brooding  genius  of  that  vast,  savage  continent, 
rise  from  sand  and  sea  and  the  low,  distant 
mainland  and  assert  itself,  so  that  we  were 
silent  as  we  walked  back  to  the  pier.  But  our 
silence  was  most  vigorously  dispelled  by  the 
sight  of  the  pinnace  returning  to  the  ship  with- 
out us.  It  paid  no  heed  to  our  cries  and  signals, 
284 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

so  we  supposed  it  would  come  back  for  us.  We 
sat  and  waited.  Overhead  the  dappled  clouds 
turned  to  glowing  crimson  as  the  sim  sank  be- 
hind the  distant  palm  groves.  The  lamps 
of  the  pier  were  lighted.  The  stars  began  to 
come  out.  A  native,  in  flapping  garments, 
needing  a  light  for  his  cigarette,  climbed  one 
of  the  high  posts  to  the  pier  lamps  and  amused 
us  much  by  sticking  his  head  into  one  of  the 
glass  globes  to  get  at  the  flame. 

A  breath  of  hot  air  rose  from  the  land  and 
smote  us,  then  a  cool  gust  from  the  bay.  But 
no  one  came  from  the  ship  to  take  us  to  our 
evening  meal.  The  cuisine,  which  we  had 
insulted  the  night  before  with  opprobrious 
epithets,  now  seemed  as  alluring  as  Frederic's 
at  La  Tour  d'Argent.  Finally,  in  despair, 
we  hailed  a  large,  slow  sloop  and  glided  silently 
to  the  steamer's  side.  That  we  had  been  for- 
gotten or  overlooked  made  us  both  humble 
and  hungry. 

Dawn   saw  us  heading  for  Zanzibar.     We 
passed  at  rare  intervals  Arab  dhows  scudding 
along  imder  their  climisy  sails.     It  is  not  so 
285 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

very  many  moons  since  this  whole  coast  was  so 
infested  with  Arab  slave-dealers  that  every 
dhow  carried  its  quota  of  the  dreadful  trade. 
That  it  has  been  entirely  stamped  out  is  due 
to  England's  unremitting  efforts  and  vigilance. 
But  the  traffic  has  left  its  mark  on  both  crews 
and  crafts,  which  look  evil,  furtive  and  menacing 
as  they  glide  from  port  to  port. 

The  island  of  Zanzibar  lies  between  latitudes 
five  and  six  south  of  the  equator.  It  is  noted 
as  far  back  as  150  a.  d.  when  the  writings  and 
maps  of  Ptolemy  were  produced.  The  best 
description  of  it,  however,  is  given  in  an  ancient 
work  called  "  Periplus  of  the  Erythraen  Sea," 
in  which,  under  the  heading  "  A  Pilot's  Guide 
to  the  Indian  Ocean,"  is  an  excellent  account 
of  the  island.  The  history  of  Zanzibar,  like 
that  of  Mombasa,  is  one  of  rapine,  murder,  and 
violence.  Fierce  African  tribes,  invading  fol- 
lowers of  Mahomet,  marauding  Portuguese, 
Turkish  corsairs,  have  all  in  turn  overrun, 
pillaged  and  ruled  Zanzibar.  The  days  of  its 
prosperity  began  in  1890,  when  the  English,  by 
an  exchange  described  in  a  previous  chapter, 
286 


MOZAJVIBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

got  entire  possession  of  the  island,  putting  on 
the  throne  a  new  Sultan,  and  estabUshing 
order. 

Zanzibar  —  the  name  was  given  by  the  Arabs 
and  means  "  paradise  "  —  is  of  coral  construc- 
tion, forty-seven  miles  long  and  twenty  broad, 
with  an  area  of  640  square  miles.  Low,  undula- 
ting hills  run  north  and  south,  reaching  their 
greatest  altitude,  800  feet,  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  island.  The  mean  temperature 
is  80°.  The  hottest  season  is  from  January 
to  March.  The  population  of  about  250,000 
is  composed  of  Arabs,  Africans,  Swahilis, 
Comoro  Islanders,  Parsees,  Malagasies,  In- 
dians, and  in  fact  representatives  of  all  the 
races  of  Eastern  Africa,  Western  Asia  and 
Southern   Europe. 

The  town  of  Zanzibar  has  about  60,000  in- 
habitants and  is  situated  on  the  southwest 
shores  of  the  long,  low  island.  It  is  the  prin- 
cipal port  on  the  East  Coast,  though  its  harbor 
is  little  more  than  an  open  roadstead.  Its 
chief  exports  are  ivory,  rubber,  cloves,  copra, 
ebony  and  gimi  copal.  Nine-tenths  of  all  the 
287 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

cloves  used  in  the  world  are  said  to  come  from 
Zanzibar. 

As  the  ship  was  to  stay  some  two  or  three 
days  in  this  harbor,  we  gladly  accepted  an 
invitation  to  spend  that  time  tmder  the  roof 
of  a  hospitable  English  gentleman  who  was 
living  in  a  quaint,  old  Arab  house.  The  centre 
of  the  house  was  a  great  open  court,  the  corri- 
dors and  stairs  of  the  first  two  or  three  floors 
gave  on  this  court  with  wide  arches,  while  our 
apartments  at  the  top  of  the  house  looked 
down  into  it  from  one  set  of  windows,  while 
the  opposite  windows  opened  high  above  the 
narrow  street.  Indeed  our  room  was  open  to 
all  four  points  of  the  compass,  so  that,  should 
any  breeze  blow,  we  should  get  it. 

After  a  dinner,  that  by  its  excellence  made  us 
forget  the  ship's  fare,  we  climbed  many  stairs 
to  the  roof.  An  Arab  builder's  idea  of  stairs 
is  to  have  no  contiguous  two  steps  of  the  same 
height.  This  is  unexpectedly  disconcerting, 
but  we  reached  the  dizzy  elevation  above 
nevertheless,  and  revelled  in  the  beauty  of  the 
night  as  we  looked  out  over  the  town  lying 
288 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

below  us.  To  the  west  lay  the  harbor  with  the 
half  a  dozen  ships  riding  at  anchor  there  all 
alight.  To  the  north,  south  and  east  stretched 
the  roofs,  walls,  towers  and  minarets  of  the 
most  picturesque  place  in  East  Africa.  From 
the  narrow  winding  ways  below,  the  street 
lights  sent  up  strange,  fantastic  shadows.  A 
Mohammedan  priest  in  a  near-by  mosque  came 
out  and,  in  full  melodious  voice,  chanted  the 
muezzin,  or  call  to  prayer.  Many  sounds  rose 
muffled  from  the  dimly  lit  city,  while  from  the 
black  dome  above  us  the  stars  shone  fiercely 
down,  the  moon  not  having  yet  risen.  Late 
in  the  evening  we  all  sallied  forth,  some  in 
rickshaws,  some  on  foot,  to  investigate  the 
mysterious  shadows  of  Zanzibar.  We  visited 
a  most  interesting  house  filled  with  rare  treas- 
ures of  the  Orient  from  Japan  to  Egypt,  and 
returned  sated  with  strange  impressions  of 
shrouded  forms,  dark,  mediaeval  streets,  and 
silent,  windowless  dwellings. 

Do  your  remember  the  Methodist  minister's 
illustration  of  the  warmth  of  the  lower  regions? 
"  Brethren,  have  you  ever  seen  the  white  hot 
^89 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

metal  in  a  foundry  bubbling  in  the  great 
caldrons?  You  know  how  it  seethes  and  hisses 
there.  Well  —  that  is  just  ice-cream  in  Hell!  " 
It  would  have  been  "  just  ice-cream  "  in  Zanzi- 
bar at  about  six  a.  m.  when  the  sun  first  came 
in  over  the  roofs  and  minarets,  and,  slanting 
through  the  Venetian  blinds,  would  not  be 
denied.  Breathless  and  gasping  we  turned  and 
writhed  on  our  beds.  It  was  no  use;  sleep 
would  not  come  again  and  that  shaft  of  golden 
fire  drove  me  up  to  sit  in  the  windows  on  the 
west  side  of  the  room  that  overlooked  a  high- 
walled,  Eastern  garden,  where  rioted  palms, 
ferns,  and  acacias,  together  with  the  gorgeous 
flamboyant  and  the  blazing  flame-of-the  forest. 
Far  below  in  the  narrow,  still  shadowy  street 
the  throngs  of  tropical  humanity  were  already 
astir,  filling  the  air  with  a  thick,  incoherent 
murmur. 

At  seven  the  inevitable  **  boy,"  white-capped, 
white-robed  and  barefooted,  came  with  his 
musical  hodi!  bringing  in  the  tea  and  great 
platters  of  succulent  fruit,  pineapples,  mangoes, 
pawpaws,  bananas,  Zanzibar  oranges  and  others 
^90 


Native  Hut  in  Zanzibar 


Zanzibar  Fish  Market 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

unknown.  My  favorite  was  the  mango.  A 
perfect  mango  is  a  rare  treat.  Those  of  Zanzibar 
were  golden  in  color  with  red  cheeks.  To  eat 
them  you  cut  off  a  cheek  and  spoon  out  the 
juicy  pulp,  which  has  a  delicious  consistency 
and  a  flavor  some  say  is  turpentiny.  It  is 
quite  an  art  to  eat  one  gracefully.  They  are 
slippery  and  juicy,  and  prone  to  lead  one  into 
trouble.  Furthermore  they  are  not  to  be  in- 
dulged in  rashly.  A  little  is  good  for  one„  Too 
much,  however,  brings  on  an  unpleasant  in- 
fliction known  as  mango  boils.  This  was  the 
only  consideration  that  stayed  me  from  en- 
tirely subsisting  on  mangoes. 

The  bath  in  the  large,  shallow  tin  tub  had  to  be 
taken  slowly,  otherwise  the  deliciously  cool  water 
warmed  one  up  too  much.  Breakfast  at  half- 
past  eight  —  and  such  a  good  breakfast  too '  — 
was  a  pleasant  meal.  A  boy  in  the  corridor 
pulled  the  string  which  kept  the  punka  going, 
and  the  great,  high-ceilinged,  bare  room  was 
so  shady  and  cool  that  courage  returned  and 
nerved  one  to  front  the  heat  outside  in  a  visit 
to  the  bazaars. 

299 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

A  quick  run  through  shady,  winding  ways  in 
rickshaws  brought  us  to  the  street  of  the 
bazaars.  There  Indian  merchants  offered  fas- 
cinating silver  work,  curious  jewels,  ivories, 
pongees,  and  embroidered  silks  from  the  East, 
also  from  Africa  strange  horns,  canes  made  of 
rhinoceros  horn,  whips  of  the  same,  amber  in 
hue,  and  many  queer,  native  curios.  Bargain- 
ing was  necessary,  in  which  the  low-voiced 
gentle  Oriental  always  got  the  better  of  his 
occidental  customer.  It  was  quite  breathless 
outside,  and  the  cool,  dark  shops,  redolent  with 
sandalwood  and  other  spicy  odors,  were  very 
pleasant.  Our  purchases  completed,  we  were 
offered  the  invariable  lime  juice  and  water. 

On  our  way  home  we  passed  shrouded  vendors 
of  jack-fruit,  a  huge,  green,  warty  globe,  first 
cousin  to  the  durein -fruit.  The  latter  is  also 
to  be  found  in  Zanzibar,  though  I  was  unsuc- 
cessful in  my  quest.  I  was  anxious  to  taste  it, 
as  it  is  considered  a  great  delicacy  by  those  who 
know  it  in  the  East  Indies.  It  is  described  as 
having  a  fearful  odor,  like  the  rankest  brie 
cheese,  mixed  with  the  strongest  garlic,  with  a 
^94 


MOZAMBIQUE    TO    ZANZIBAR 

dash  of  kerosene.  But  those  who  partake  of 
it  become  instantly  obHvious  to  this.  In  the 
winding  streets  we  met  a  certain  strange, 
greasy  smell  which  came  out  in  hot  puffs  from 
low  warehouses.  This  was  the  copra  for  which 
the  island  is  famous.  Copra  is  dried  cocoanut 
and  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  oils  and  soaps- 
As  the  basis  for  stagnant  air  in  a  brassy  heat, 
in  narrow  streets  where  black  shade  alternated 
with  fervid  glare,  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  or 
disregarded.  Our  ship  carried  away  a  large 
cargo  of  it,  and  for  the  rest  of  our  trip  northward 
we  seldom  were  free  from  the  permeating,  sticky, 
oily,  noisome  odor.  We  woke  up  with  it  in  our 
nostrils ^  We  tasted  it  in  our  food.  There  were 
layers  of  it  on  the  decks.  To  this  day  a  latent 
bouquet  in  certain  soaps  calls  up  visions,  with 
all  the  acute  vividness  which  smells  alone  arouse, 
of  that  wretched  ship,  its  crowded  decks,  its 
polyglot  gathering  of  passengers,  and  its  all- 
pervading  reek. 


295 


CHAPTER   XIV 

A   TRIP   TO    BU    BU    BU 

TTAVE  you  ever  been  to  Bu  Bu  Bu?  If  not, 
-■■-'■  do  not  call  yourself  a  travelled  person. 
Perhaps  you  do  not  even  know  where  it  is? 
Then  do  not  make  any  claims  to  education.  Bu 
Bu  Bu  is  a  settlement  of  low,  straw  huts  in  a 
shady  grove  of  cocoanut-palms  on  the  island  of 
Zanzibar  and  is  the  terminus  of  a  new  and  most 
important  railroad,  six  and  a  half  miles  long, 
just  completed,  having  been  built  by  an  Ameri- 
can company.  The  company  got  the  concession 
from  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar.  This  same  firm 
has  also  installed  a  new  electric  light  plant 
which  floods  the  Sultan's  palace  with  a  dazzling 
glare,  while  the  same  power-house  keeps  all  the 
palace  electric  fans  a-buzzing,  much  to  the  delight 
of  the  Zanzibar  potentate.  So  the  company  is 
important.  But  it  is  an  American  concern. 
^96 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

Perhaps  that  was  the  reason  the  English  resi- 
dents  did  not  like  it.  They  based  their  right 
to  object  on  the  ground  that  the  railroad  runs 
through  the  principal  street  in  the  native 
quarter  of  the  town.  Zanzibar  is  so  thickly- 
built  that  there  is  no  other  outlet  to  the  country 
than  by  this  narrow,  winding,  truly  wonderful 
highway.  To  get  out  otherwise  would  have 
meant  tearing  down  hundreds  of  the  human 
rabbit-hutches,  which  would  have  driven  out 
thousands  of  that  closely  packed  community. 
But  this  is  not  taken  into  consideration  by  the 
Britishers,  who  have  brought  all  their  influence 
to  bear  on  the  Sultan  to  revoke  the  license  he 
gave  the  American  company.  He  could  not 
do  this  legally,  imless  they  failed  to  keep  their 
part  of  the  contract  to  have  the  road  in  running 
order  at  a  certain  date.  To  accomplish  this 
they  started  within  the  time  specified  one  train 
a  day  to  Bu  Bu  Bu.  This  daily  mail  left  the 
sea-front  at  four  p.  m.  Up  till  that  hour  of  the 
day  the  building  of  the  road  was  in  active 
operation.  Then  any  loose  rails  were  hastily 
fastened  down  and  the  work  discontinued  till 
297 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

dawn  the  following  day.  To  be  sure  the  train 
often  ran  off  these  temporary  rails,  but  there 
was  no  danger  of  collisions,  as  there  was  no  other 
train  on  the  island.  Hard-pushed  by  his  British 
subjects,  the  Sultan  of  Zanzibar,  Ali  bin  Ha- 
moud,  at  length  threatened  summarily  to  put 
in  jail  the  perpetrators  of  this  one  and  only 
railway  in  his  dominions.  This  was  during  our 
stay,  and  as  our  host  was  hand  in  glove  with 
the  American  offenders,  and  would  have  had 
to  suffer  with  them,  we  were  deeply  interested 
in  the  struggle. 

The  possibility  of  seeing  our  genial  friend  at 
any  moment  marched  off  to  a  Zanzibar  jail 
added  a  fearful  spice  to  e very-day  life.  But  he 
and  his  confreres  made  the  best  of  their  re- 
sources. They  suggested  that  they  would  cut 
off  the  lights  and  fan-power  from  the  palace. 
This  was  too  much  for  the  Sultan,  so  he  stayed 
his  wrath.  Personally  he  had  a  sneaking  fond- 
ness for  the  enterprise.  It  added  prestige  to  his 
kingdom.  At  any  rate,  when  last  heard  of  the 
trains  were  running,  while  the  managers  of 
the  road  were  still  at  large,  though  not 
298 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

invited    to    social    ftinctions    in    the    British 
colony. 

Of  course  we  went  to  Bu  Bu  Bu  and  with  us 
went  the  distinguished  English  general,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  was  staying  with  the  other 
faction,  and  that  his  host  did  not  accompany 
him.  It  was  a  white-hot  afternoon  The  men 
and  women  of  the  party  all  wore  white  helmets 
and  white  linen  suits,  except  the  distinguished 
general,  who  wore  a  khaki  helmet,  a  green  suit 
and  a  scarlet  tie. 

He  carried  with  him  his  sketch-book,  his  vade 
mecum.  He  is  almost  as  noted  for  his  pen  and 
pencil  as  he  is  for  his  mihtary  achievements. 
He  is  an  indefatigable  worker  and  neither 
the  heat  of  the  tropics,  nor  unfavorable  condi- 
tions could  diminish  his  ardor.  His  little  book 
was  rich  with  very  clever  sketches  taken  en  route. 
We  rode  through  the  narrow,  dark  streets  in  the 
light-rolling  gharries  and  emerged  suddenly  into 
the  blinding  glare  of  the  open  sea-front  where 
stood  the  little  train. 

This  train  was  composed  of  a  snorting,  im- 
portant little  engine,  one  closed  car  with  wicker 
299 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

chairs,  and  one  open  car  with  two  seats  back  to 
back,  running  the  length  of  the  car.  This  latter 
was  already  packed  with  a  chattering  crowd 
of  natives,  to  whom  a  ride  on  the  new  railway 
was  the  principal  excitement  of  life.  One  solemn- 
visaged  old  Arab  had  made  the  trip  every  day 
since  the  road  first  opened.  In  the  front  car 
we  fotind,  besides  the  operators  of  the  railway, 
two  yoimg  cousins  of  the  Sultan's,  beautiful, 
sloe-eyed  youths  of  twelve  and  fourteen,  dressed 
in  Eton  suits,  one  wearing  large  diamond  ear- 
rings in  the  upper  part  of  the  ears,  while  the 
other  sported  huge  emeralds  in  the  same  fashion. 
They  had  gentle  manners  and  soft  voices.  When 
I  asked  one  how  he  was,  he  answered:  "  Thank 
you  very  much."    It  was  his  only  phrase. 

There  was  a  tremendous  clamor  of  voices, 
for  a  crowd  always  assembled  for  this  daily 
departure.  The  engine  shrieked  in  piercing 
fashion,  its  bell  clanged,  the  white-gowned 
throng  pulled  each  other  excitedly  off  the 
tracks,  the  heat  blazed  up  from  the  dazzling 
square,  the  perspiration  rolled  down  our  faces, 
for  not  a  breath  of  air  was  stirring,  and  finally, 

soo 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

with  a  plunge,  the  train  rumbled  slowly  away. 
It  turned  almost  immediately  from  the  sea- 
front  into  one  of  the  narrowest,  queerest  streets 
in  the  world.  The  foot-passengers  flattened 
themselves  against  the  walls  of  the  low,  plaster 
houses  to  let  us  by.  From  their  little,  shady 
porches  men  and  women  from  every  quarter 
of  the  Orient  and  tropics  looked  out  at  us  in 
swarming  thousands,  chattering  and  gesticula- 
ting. The  shrill  whistle  of  the  engine  screamed 
frantically  the  whole  of  the  time,  filling  the 
winding,  close-packed  way  with  a  deafening 
din.  Speech  was  impossible.  We  hting  out  of 
the  windows  in  order  not  to  lose  a  moment  of 
the  curious  scene,  with  its  gorgeous  mingling  of 
bright  colors,  strange  types,  fierce  clamor  and 
weird  smells.  Long  before  we  reached  the  fish 
market  we  knew  it  was  coming.  There  we 
saw  sharks,  swordfishes  and  many  tmknown 
kinds  of  sea-food  hanging  up  or  lying  in  odor- 
iferous heaps  on  the  steaming  earth.  When 
one  realizes  the  way  in  which  these  people  live 
one  understands  why  bubonic  plague  is  chronic 
in  Zanzibar. 

301 


SOME    APRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

After  we  left  this  crowded  quarter  we  ran 
near  the  sea.  On  the  shore  many  camels  paced 
across  the  sands  with  their  haughty,  melancholy 
tread,  bearing  loads  of  cocoanuts  and  cloves. 
We  passed  crumbling  walls  enclosing  over- 
grown gardens  full  of  tropical  shrubs  and  trees, 
with  perhaps  here  and  there  a  seraglio  peeping 
out  of  the  depth  of  the  dark  foliage.  It  took  us 
a  little  over  an  hour  to  traverse  that  six  and  a 
half  miles.  The  road  ended  in  a  clay  bank,  up 
which  we  clambered,  the  native  crowd  dispersing 
in  jabbering  groups  tmder  the  rattling  palms. 
We  sought  an  old  Arab  waterway,  a  straight 
channel  of  nmning  water  in  ancient  masonry, 
which  burbled  along  through  a  deHcious  green- 
ery composed  of  moss,  ferns,  acacias  and  palms. 
It  was  cool  and  shady  and  most  exquisitely 
refreshing  after  the  heat  and  glare.  The  land 
swarmed  with  black  and  brown  people  in  gaudy 
colors  or  dazzling  white.  The  sim  was  dropping 
in  the  west  and  glinted  through  tall,  straight 
tree  trunks.  We  visited  one  of  the  Sultan's 
summer  palaces,  a  strange,  forbidding  structure, 
with  a  many-storied,  dreary  seraglio  standing 
80^ 


OQ 


PQ 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

at  the  end  of  a  bare  court.  A  deep,  dank,  dark 
pool  at  one  side  of  the  palace,  under  black  trees, 
suggested  midnight  drownings  with  muffled 
shrieks  from  heavy  sacks. 

The  return  trip  was  accomplished  with  the 
same  clamor,  excitement  and  confusion  as  the 
outgoing  one,  and  the  last  crimson  glow  of  sunset 
flooded  the  sea  and  land  as  we  alighted  from  the 
train  after  one  of  the  most  thrilling  railway 
journeys  of  my  life. 

That  night  we  dined  with  the  American  per- 
petrator of  the  road,  and  his  wife,  who  Hved  in 
a  queer  old  Arab  house.  We  moimted  many 
steps,  passed  through  large  airy  rooms  furnished 
with  richly  carved  teak- wood  chairs,  tables  and 
screens,  climbed  still  more  stairs,  and  found 
ourselves  on  the  dizzy  heights  of  the  roof  with 
the  dazzling  canopy  of  the  tropical  night  over- 
head. A  breeze  from  the  bay  made  the  candles 
flicker.  A  huge  Indian  silver  bowl,  richly 
chased,  holding  some  heavily  scented  unknown 
blossoms,  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  On 
a  still  higher  elevation  of  the  roof  the  comfort- 
able lounging -chairs  that  every  Eastern  house- 
305 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

hold  boasts  invited  us  to  rest,  while  the  many 
servants  padded  noiselessly  about,  bringing  cool 
drinks,  and  arranging  to  serve  the  dinner. 
Again  we  had  the  wonderful  panorama  of  the 
city  at  our  feet,  and  saw  strange  lights  flickering 
up  against  white  walls  and  minarets,  and  heard 
all  the  mysterious  sounds  blending  and  rising  in 
a  vast  whisper  to  the  stars.  It  is  a  rare  treat 
thus  to  dine  high  above  an  Eastern  city,  with 
night  winds  just  stirring  the  hot  air  and  a  sense 
of  infinite  space  above  and  around  one.  The 
talk  was  delightful,  the  dinner  delicious,  and 
midnight  came  before  we  were  once  more  in 
rickshaws  on  our  way  home,  through  the  still 
and  breathless  streets.  We  passed  shrouded 
forms  sleeping  along  the  way.  A  goat-herd 
with  his  flock  lay  all  in  heavy  slumber  in  an 
angle  of  the  road.  A  few  ghostly  wanderers, 
draped  from  head  to  foot  in  white,  flitted  noise- 
lessly by,  and  copra  and  cloves,  with  an  occa- 
sional whiff  of  sandalwood,  tinged  the  night 
air. 

The  next  day  saw  us  on  our  way  in  our 
modem  Noah's  Ark  to  Dar  Es  Salaam,  which  we 
306 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

reached  in  time  for  afternoon  tea  on  the  cool, 
dehghtful  terrace  of  the  governor's  house, 
overlooking  the  sea.  The  countess,  the  gov- 
ernor's wife,  was  holding  her  usual  little  court, 
and  the  scene,  with  its  white  pillars,  Moorish 
arches,  broad  terraces  and  background  of 
palms  and  baobabs  and  the  blue  Indian  Ocean, 
was   charming. 

The  drive  which  we  took  later  led  us  under 
a  long,  straight  double  line  of  flamboyants  (a 
semi-tropical  tree),  at  that  season  all  aflame 
with  their  gorgeous,  trumpet-shaped,  crimson 
blossoms.  The  setting  sun  gleaming  across 
them  made  a  glory  of  color  I  have  never  seen 
equalled. 

The  two  nights  that  we  spent  at  Dar  Es 
Salaam  we  dined  at  the  governor's,  meeting 
each  evening  a  most  interesting  circle  of  people ; 
men  who  had  achieved  notable  things  out  there, 
who  had  encountered  danger  in  every  form,  and 
helped  bring  light  into  the  Dark  Continent; 
women  who  had  borne  the  harder  part  of  wait- 
ing on  the  edge  of  those  vast  solitudes  for  the 
men  to  come  out  of  the  wildernesses.  One  eve- 
307 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

ning  the  dinner  was  served  on  the  great,  upper 
veranda,  with  the  velvet  curtain  of  the  night 
as  a  background.  The  big,  round  table  with  its 
candles,  garlands  of  flowers,  glittering  crystal 
and  silver,  and  the  encircling  guests  all  in 
smartest  of  evening  dress,  made  a  brilliant 
oasis  of  color  and  light  in  that  thick,  envelop- 
ing, fragrant  darkness. 

The  nights  in  the  harbor  were  far  from 
restful,  for,  preferring  the  greater  coolness 
of  the  ship's  deck,  we  did  not  accept  the 
coimtess's  hospitable  invitation  to  stay  with 
her.  It  was  certainly  cooler  on  the  ship,  but  oh, 
so  clamorously  noisy!  For,  anxious  to  be  on 
his  way,  the  captain  carried  on  his  loading 
nearly  all  night.  We  were  lashed  to  a  steamer 
from  India  and  Madagascar,  and  up  till  two 
in  the  morning,  the  engines  and  cranes  filled 
the  night  with  their  din,  interspersed  with 
shouts  and  the  exceeding  vociferousness  which 
attends  all  native  labor.  To  stay  in  our  cabins 
was  out  of  the  question,  so  we  stretched  our- 
selves on  mattresses,  or  on  long  Bombay  chairs, 
and  dozed  fitfully,  never  entirely  losing  con- 
308 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

sciousness  of  the  strange  lights  and  shadows 
thrown  up  from  the  busy,  brilHantly  Ht,  lower 
forward  decks,  or  of  the  hoarse  creakings,  rat- 
tlings  and  shouts  that  rose  from  there.  But  a 
soft  breath  of  air  from  the  sea  caressed  us  and 
we  had  none  of  the  disease-bearing  mosquitoes 
which  infest  the  land.  The  deck-swabbing  at 
five  A.  M.  drove  some  below.  I,  however,  pre- 
ferred to  tuck  in  my  draperies  and  to  get  a 
final  nap  before  the  sun  blazed  in  splendor 
across  the  rippling  waters. 

It  was  low  tide  when  we  steamed  out  of  the 
landlocked  harbor  of  Dar  Es  Salaam,  and  the 
waters  had  receded  so  far  dow^n  the  long,  shiny 
beach  to  the  narrow,  winding,  well-buoyed 
channel  that  the  many  natives  who  had  waded 
out  to  the  tide's  edge  to  gather  shell-fish  seemed 
almost  directly  under  the  ship's  side  as  we 
glided  slowly  along.  They  carried  on  their 
heads  big  baskets  of  loose  weave  and,  with 
their  scant,  gay  draperies  and  their  glossy  black 
skins,  made  a  festival  of  color  in  the  shallow, 
rippling  waters.  We  took  a  last  glance  at  the 
charming  residency  gleaming  among  the  trees, 
309 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

and  then  the  waving  palms  of  Dar  Es  Salaam 
dropped  from  sight  behind  us,  like  many  an- 
other lovely  vision.  We  stopped  at  Zanzibar 
for  a  couple  of  hours  to  pick  up  the  mails  and 
some  belated  cargo,  and  then  headed  for  Tanga. 
It  was  sunset  when  we  came  into  this  harbor. 
To  the  left  on  a  promontory  stood  the  hospital, 
a  fine  building  of  cream-colored  stucco  with  red 
tiled  roof.  Ahead  of  us  a  few  other  houses,  half- 
hidden  in  foliage,  indicated  the  town,  which  lay 
behind  and  away  from  the  shore.  It  was  night 
when  we  finally  hailed  a  native  and  his  boat 
and  went  to  investigate  the  settlement.  At 
the  landing-place  we  found  an  evidence  of  Ger- 
man thoroughness,  in  a  large  board  on  which 
was  written  in  German,  English  and  French  the 
proper  boat  fares.  The  pier  was  w^ell  lighted 
and  everything  was  orderly  and  systematic. 
After  leaving  this  cheerful  spot,  however,  we 
plimged  into  Cimmerian  darkness  and  stumbled 
along  toward  a  far  distant  point  of  light,  imtil 
we  bumped  into  the  ship's  baggage-master,  who 
told  us  that  a  little  further  on  we  would  find 
one  of  those  delightful  hand-trolleys  which  so 
310 


A    TRIP    TO    BU    BU    BU 

often  solve  the  problem  of  transportation  in 
East  Africa.  Having  seated  ourselves  in  one, 
our  troubles  were  over  and  we  flew  through  the 
delicious,  thick,  fragrant  night  until  we  found 
ourselves  in  the  comparative  glare  of  the  main 
comer  in  Tanga.  We  indicated  in  our  best 
Swahili  that  we  wished  to  go  on  and  see  more, 
so  our  barefooted,  white-f rocked  himian  steed 
rushed  us  along  broad,  shaded  highways  where, 
on  either  side,  lights  shone  out  from  low  door- 
ways. We  stopped  at  some  and  went  into 
stuffy  interiors  inhabited  by  natives  or  Indians 
selling  various  commodities.  We  pulled  out  the 
gaudy  prints  which  they  use  for  dresses  and 
made  a  selection.  We  offered  for  two  of  these 
the  price  which  they  asked  for  one  and  the  offer 
was  promptly  accepted.  A  pale  light  from  a 
paraffine  lamp  overhead  illumined  the  dingy 
interior.  A  straight-haired  Goanese  made  the 
sale,  while  a  stalwart  and  ill-smelling  African 
rather  sullenly  hauled  the  things  out  for  us. 
It  was  a  relief  to  be  out  once  more  in  the  sweet- 
smelling  blackness  of  the  shaded  roads.  Through 
the  leaves  we  could  get  glimpses  of  fierce  stars. 
311 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

We  halted  again  at  the  Botanical  Gardens. 
Winding  paths,  tall  palms,  giant  ferns  all  lured 
us  into  the  darkest,  quietest  place  I  ever  felt; 
for  we  could  see  nothing  when  the  matches  we 
lit  went  out.  It  is  amazing,  however,  the 
feeling  of  security  we  had  in  that  utterly  remote, 
unexplored  place.  The  night  held  no  terrors 
for  us.  It  was  more  orderly  and  law-abiding 
than  most  modem  cities  are  after  sunset. 
And  it  is  curious  that  this  should  be  so,  for  after 
all  these  swarming  natives  are  only  one  remove 
from  savages.  Occasionally  some  isolated 
tragedy  occurs,  like  the  case  of  Harry  Gait, 
which  shakes  the  sense  of  security  that  grows 
up  among  the  handful  of  whites  who  live  in  and 
rule  over  these  vast  and  thickly  populated 
territories  in  the  Dark  Continent. 

We  found  our  way  back  to  shore  and  there 
secured  a  boat  to  take  us  to  the  ship,  which 
was  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  so  away  across 
the  glassy,  black  water.  Morning  saw  us  at  sea 
again  headed  for  Mombasa. 


31« 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE    LAST    OF    THE    TROPICS 

T70R  the  third  time  we  came  to  Mombasa. 
The  hottest  of  the  hot  season  was  in  full 
sway.  The  mango-trees  that  line  the  charming 
highway  from  Kilindini,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
island,  to  Mombasa  on  the  east,  cast  a  blacker 
shade  on  the  white  coral  sand  road.  All  the 
many  colors  that  dazzled  us  on  our  first  visit 
there  seemed  even  more  intense  now.  I  can  give 
only  a  small  idea  of  the  utterly  tropical  effect 
of  the  low  grass  huts  under  the  rattling  palms ;  of 
the  swarming  throngs  of  chattering  black  and 
brown  people  who  seem  as  much  a  part  of  the 
place  as  the  trees  and  flowers ;  of  the  strangely 
pungent  or  oppressively  sweet  odors  that  came 
in  hot  gusts  from  either  side  of  the  way;  of 
the  glimpses  of  indigo  sea,  and  of  the  over- 
arching deep  blue  sky  where  rode  that  terrible 

313 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

source  of  heat  and  light  that  seems  only  a  distant 
cousin  to  the  milder  sun  of  the  temperate  zones. 

While  the  sun  of  the  tropics  is  so  dangerous 
it  is  at  the  same  time  the  great  salvation  of 
those  regions,  the  chief  sanitary  agent,  des- 
troying microbes  and  all  disease-breeding 
refuse.  They  say  there  that  ten  minutes'  ex- 
posure to  the  stm's  rays  of  any  article  infected 
with  smallpox  germs  purifies  it  entirely.  Even 
the  insect  world  is  helpless  in  contact  with 
these  rays.  A  box  of  lump  sugar,  having  been 
invaded  by  the  small,  red  ants  which  swarm 
over  everything  there,  was  laid  out  on  a  sheet 
of  paper  in  the  sun.  In  twenty  minutes  there 
was  not  an  ant  left  except  some  little,  blackened 
corpses  of  those  that  had  lingered  too  long. 
They  could  not  stand  the  fierce  heat. 

It  is  most  dangerous  for  a  European  to  go 
even  for  a  few  minutes  with  the  head  uncovered, 
exposed  to  the  sun's  rays.  The  longer  you  live 
there  the  more  do  you  realize  this.  The  pith 
helmet  is  the  safest  head-covering,  while  it  is 
advisable  to  have  all  parasols  interlined  with 
dark  green  if  possible. 

314 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    TROPICS 

The  natives,  however,  do  not  seem  to  suffer 
from  the  direct  rays.  Sans  head-covering  they 
toil  all  day  with  no  ill  effects. 

Once  more  we  ran  in  the  little  rumbling 
trolleys  over  the  shining  rails  across  the  island, 
and  found  ourselves  in  the  queer,  old  streets 
of  the  town.  At  one  corner  of  the  main  street 
stood  the  ancient,  windowless  tower  of  a 
mosque,  looking  like  a  white  plaster  pepper-pot. 
The  old  houses  of  Mombasa  all  butt  into  the 
street,  each  at  its  ow^n  angle.  Many  of  the 
doorways  are  fine  specimens  of  carving,  the 
teak- wood  jambs  and  lintels  being  wrought  into 
strange.  Oriental  designs.  There  is  much  coming 
and  going  of  white-gowned  Indians  and  gaudily 
draped  Africans  As  they  push  the  trains  of 
heavily  laden  trucks  on  the  narrow  tracks, 
the  almost  naked  natives  sing  a  wailing,  minor 
chant  with  a  marked  rhythm  that  is  strangely 
thrilling  —  one  of  the  finest  effects  of  sound  I 
ever  heard.  It  rings  in  my  ears  still,  though 
months  and  leagues  intervene  since  I  last  heard 
it  rising  and  swelling  with  heart-breaking 
melancholy,  its  undertones  of  deep,  accented 
315 


SOME   AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

guttural  notes  sounding  like  the  march  in  per- 
fect unison  of  thousands  of  bare  feet. 

The  night  of  our  arrival  we  dined  at  Judge 

H 's,  where  we  had  dined  our  first  evening  on 

African  soil.  It  was  too  warm  to  endure  any 
covering  over  our  shoulders,  so,  bareheaded 
and  bare-necked,  we  descended  the  ship's  side, 
got  into  a  small  boat,  and  were  rowed  across 
the  black,  lapping  waters.  We  climbed  the 
high  bank  and  found  the  distinguished  English 
general,  who  had  left  the  ship  at  Mombasa, 
ready  to  escort  us.  A  white-gowned  boy  was 
also  there  with  a  lantern  to  light  us  to  the  trolley 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  away  in  a  mango  grove. 
We  stumbled  along  the  sandy  trail,  the  lantern 
twinlding  in  the  thick  darkness,  lighting  up  the 
coarse,  sparse  grass  and  the  many  creeping 
things  that  scuttled  away  at  our  coming.  Some 
frangipani,  unseen  but  perceptible,  scented  the 
still,  heavy  air.  We  saw  a  distant  spark  of 
light ;  it  was  the  lantern  of  the  little  trolley  that 
waited  for  us  in  a  hollow.  We  were  glad  to  find 
ourselves  sitting  in  it  and  rushing  swiftly 
through  the  night.  The  wind  of  our  passage 
316 


C/3 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    TROPICS 

cooled  our  overheated  faces.  It  was  fascinating 
going  through  the  utterly  silent,  oppressively- 
heavy  blackness  of  that  tropical  evening.  Used 
as  we  are  to  the  gentle  and  lingering  twilights 
of  the  temperate  zones,  the  practically  unvary- 
ing twelve  hours  of  darkness  of  the  equator  was 
a  never-failing  sensation. 

The  dinner  was  delightful,  and  the  return 
to  the  ship  even  more  curious  in  the  accompany- 
ing impressions  of  solitude,  silence,  and  impene- 
trable mysterious  night.  Through  this  we  two 
little,  lonely  American  women  were  speeding, 
this  time  without  escort,  bareheaded,  bare-shoul- 
dered, in  very  nice  silk  evening  costumes,  peo- 
pling the  palpable  dark,  as  we  went,  with  horrid 
tropical  phantoms.  "  What  agonies  we  undergo 
for  things  that  never  happen  after  all!  "  Quite 
safely  we  climbed  the  steps  swinging  on  the 
ship's  side  and  made  our  way  to  our  cabins  at 
midnight. 

The  next  day's  hot  noon  saw  us  on  our  way 

out  to  the  cool  stretches  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 

We  had  shipped  as  passengers  here  an  Italian 

family  from  Mogadisho,  a  sacred  city  situated 

317 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

on  the  dreariest  stretch  of  East  African  sea- 
shore, a  Httle  north  of  the  equator.  They  had 
brought  with  them  an  Arab  boy  and  a  Mada- 
gascar monkey.  The  former  was  a  handsome 
lad  of  about  ten  or  twelve,  who  wore  the  most 
enchanting  turbans  of  magenta  and  blue,  and 
picturesque  gowns  of  many  stripes  and  colors. 
His  charge,  the  monkey,  was  a  beautiful  little 
creature,  of  softest  fur,  striped  black  and  white, 
big,  prominent  brown  eyes,  and  a  long  and  very 
wonderful  tail,  ringed  black  and  white.  These 
two,  when  we  came  to  the  chill  of  the  Red  Sea, 
shrivelled  up  and,  wrapped  in  the  folds  of  a 
heavy  Scotch  travelling-cape,  all  that  was 
visible  were  two  little  pinched  faces  peering 
reproachfully  at  the  world.  We  all  felt  the 
cold  when  the  thermometer  dropped  below 
70°  and  the  wintry  winds  blew  from  the  fierce, 
bleak  mountains  that  rim  the  Arabian  desert. 
At  Aden  we  drove  up  to  see  the  tanks,  a 
disappointing  spectacle,  though  the  drive  was 
interesting,  passing  as  it  does  through  a  narrow 
gorge  of  red,  overhanging  rocks,  and  coming 
out  on  a  flat,  sandy,  glaring  stretch,  where 
318 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    TROPICS 

the  low,  plaster  houses  seem  like  mere  excres- 
cences. We  passed  caravans  of  camels,  looking 
shabby  and  moth-eaten,  and  bearing  loads  of 
coffee  from  that  mysterious  interior  country 
that  so  few  Europeans  have  penetrated. 

At  Aden  Asia  and  Africa  touch  and  present 
the  most  wonderful  mingling  of  strange  human 
types  to  be  seen  anywhere.  The  ship  was 
surrounded  with  small  boats  filled  with  clamor- 
ing hordes  wishing  to  sell  all  sorts  of  things: 
ostrich  feathers  in  every  shape  and  color; 
beautiful  baskets  of  native  make;  many  kinds 
of  ivory  and  silver  work ;  strange  sea  products ; 
and  scarves  and  draperies  of  every  variety. 
The  people  who  offered  the  things  were  even 
more  curious  and  interesting  than  their  wares. 
Queer,  greasy-looking  Asiatic  Jews,  wearing 
conical  shaped  caps,  with  long  shiny  ringlets 
oozing  forth  in  front  of  their  ears,  with  high 
hooked  noses  and  scraggly  beards,  came  pawing 
our  sleeves  and  fawningly  striving  to  attract 
our  attention  to  their  stock  of  feathers;  a 
rascally  untrustworthy  lot  they  were!  Little 
semi-nude  Arab  boys  tried  to  make  us  buy 
319 


SOME    AFRICAN   HIGHWAYS 

a  primitive  native  tooth-brush,  a  stick  split  at 
the  end,  which  they  first  energetically  used  to 
polish  their  own  brilliantly  gleaming  teeth,  and 
then  vociferously  offered  to  us.  Every  race 
and  race-mixture  clamored  and  swarmed  about 
the  sides  of  the  ships  in  the  fierce  glare  of  the 
noon  sun.  Those  passengers  who  did  not  care 
to  meet  them  on  the  deck  hung  out  of  their 
ports  and  bargained  with  the  merchants  in 
small  boats,  purchases  being  pulled  up  by 
strings,  and  money  let  dow^n  in  the  same  way. 
It  was  a  most  amusing  sight.  The  big  empty 
coal-barges  with  their  crews,  red-headed,  black- 
skinned  and  naked,  lay  off  at  a  little  distance. 
The  town  gleamed  white  across  the  gUttering 
waters  against  its  background  of  brutally  bare 
crimson  rocks.  All  was  an  orgy  of  fierce  color, 
light  and  din.  It  was  our  last  glimpse  of  the 
East  and  the  tropics.  I  shall  long  remember 
it. 

It  grew  quite  cold  as  we  steamed  northward 

to  the  Suez  Canal.     A  wintry  blast  from  the 

Mediterranean  swept  down  across  the  isthmus. 

At  Suez,  as  we  lay  aw^aiting  our  turn  to  enter 

320 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    TROPICS 

the  canal,  while  we  were  looking  at  the  town, 
the  sand  from  the  desert  seemed  to  rise  in  one 
mighty  cloud  and  blot  out  earth  and  sky  and 
sea.  Our  ship  swung  heavily  around  on  its 
anchor,  as  the  dry  blast  struck  us;  the  decks 
became  covered  with  gritty  dust,  and  we  had 
a  slight  taste  of  one  of  the  celebrated  sand- 
storms of  Sahara. 

The  wind  had  not  died  down  when  we  reached 
Port  Said,  and  the  wide  streets  of  that  city 
were  filled  with  spiral^  of  sand  and  dead  leaves, 
whirling  up  and  down  like  dancing  dervishes. 
We  browsed  around  in  the  excellent  shops  here, 
and  had  some  very  good  tea  and  English  pound- 
cake in  a  pleasant,  sunny,  upper  parlor  of  a 
hotel.  The  ship's  fare  had  not  improved  with 
the  passing  weeks,  though  by  this  time  we 
had  eaten  up  our  entertaining  and  musical 
barn-yard  and  were  subsisting  on  what  the  cook 
bought  at  the  various  ports. 

A  lively  blow  in  the  Mediterranean  greeted 

us  as  we  left  the  canal.    With  slight  intermission 

this  kept  up  the  four  and  a  half  days  it  took  us 

to  reach  Naples,  though  the  morning  was   a 

381 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

brilliant  one  when  we  steamed  through  the 
straits  of  Messina.  To  the  right  lay  the  bold 
promontories  and  quaint  towns  of  Calabria. 
To  the  left  ^tna,  still  snow-topped,  overhung 
everything  in  Sicily,  We  saw  Taormina  the 
beautiful,  gleaming  half-way  up  the  charming 
hillside  to  which  it  clings,  and  we  noted  many 
other  landmarks.  Stromboli,  when  we  passed 
it,  was  enveloped  in  its  own  smoke,  which 
shrouded  it  like  a  heavy  mantle.  Vesuvius 
looked  rather  pensive  as  we  entered  the  Bay 
of  Naples,  though  that  night  from  our  hotel 
windows  we  saw  two  glowing  streams  of  lava, 
like  deep  gashes  in  its  hoary  sides,  but  nothing 
to  indicate  the  catastrophe  that  was  imminent, 
Having  met  lions  face  to  face  in  East  Africa 
and  a  sand-storm  at  Suez,  it  remained  for  us 
to  go  through  the  most  terrific  Vesuvian  erup- 
tion since  163 1  to  fill  our  cup  of  experiences  and 
sensations  full  to  the  brim. 


32^ 


CHAPTER    XVI 

OUR   FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

/^N  Wednesday,  April  4th,  as  I  was  returning 
from  a  day  in  charming  Capri,  I  noticed  that 
the  throng  of  tourists  that  daily  crowded  the 
Capri  steamers  were  all  looking  at  Vesuvius  with 
unusual  excitement,  and,  turning,  I  saw  a  thick 
coil  of  brown  smoke  oozing  out  of  the  crater, 
quite  different  from  the  usual  intermittent 
puffs.  It  rose  a  little  way  and  then  was  blown 
in  a  long,  slow  stream  out  across  the  bay,  and 
soon  a  shower  of  fine  cinders  fell  on  us  as  we 
sat  looking  up  at  the  mountain.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  great  eruption  of  1906. 

For  three  days  the  smoke  poured  forth  in 
constantly  increasing  volume.  The  wind  had 
changed,  sending  this  north  and  westwards, 
so  that  at  night,  what  was  a  splendid  spectacle 
from  Castellamare  and  Sorrento,  could  not  be 
S23 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

seen  from  Naples.  But  we  occasionally  heard 
sounds  like  the  boom  of  distant  cannon  from 
the  mountain,  while  the  sun  glared  dimly 
through  the  yellow  haze,  and  each  morning  on 
our  balcony  the  deposit  of  volcanic  dust  was 
heavier.  Still  we  felt  no  fear,  nor  thought  that  it 
was  other  than  one  of  the  fine  eruptions  with 
which  Vesuvius  is  wont  to  entertain  the  sur- 
rounding covintry.  By  Saturday,  however,  the 
explosions  became  louder  and  more  frequent, 
the  discharge  of  smoke  and  ashes  heavier,  and 
crowds  began  to  gather  in  the  streets  and  on 
housetops,  looking  toward  the  mountain  and 
wondering  what  was  going  to  happen.  There 
was  a  feeling  of  not  unpleasant  excitement 
in  the  air;  the  timid  could  be  heard 
complaining.  Reports  from  the  other  side 
of  the  mountain  said  that  a  large  and 
fresh  stream  of  lava  was  creeping  down 
the  eastern  flanks  and  menacing  vineyards 
and  the  small  and  thickly  settled  towns 
that  clung  in  fancied  security  to  the  great 
chimney.  The  fumes  and  clouds  of  smoke 
grew  thicker.  The  cinders,  that  fell  still  lightly 
S24i 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

on    our    faces,    tasted    salty    and    sulphurous, 

made  our  eyes  smart,  and  irritated  our  throats. 

People  began  to  wear  veils,  masks  or  goggles. 

That    night    the    reverberations    grew    louder; 

the  sense  of  an  imminent  something  became 

oppressive.    A  large  percentage  of  the  travelling 

public  who  were  then  gathered  in  Naples  notified 

the  hotel-keepers  that  they  would  go  to  Rome 

the  next  morning,  and  spent  the  evening  packing. 

Others,  more  adventurous,  had  gone  to  Castella- 

mare,  whence  the  spectacle  was  one  of  fearful 

splendor.     At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  two 

appalling  reports  in  quick  succession  shook  the 

town  and  fairly  knocked  me  out  of  bed.     The 

mountain  had  blown  out  two  new  craters  near 

the  summit  on  the  southeast  side.     The  ashes 

were  falling  so  fast  that  the  city  lights  were  dim. 

The  next  morning  came  terrifying  reports  of  the 

destructions   on   the  east  flank.     A  stream  of 

lava  forty  feet  high  and  a  thousand  feet  broad 

had  moved  at  a  stately  pace  and  with  irresistible 

force  down  through  vineyards  and  olive  groves, 

oven\^helming  the  town  of  Bosco-Tre-Case  and 

menacing  Torre  Annunziata  on  the  sea.    Many 

325 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

from  Naples  had  spent  the  night  on  the  eastern 
slope  watching  the  wonderful  and  terrible  sight. 
The  Duke  of  Aosta  was  there  at  the  head  of  the 
troopi  helping  the  people  to  escape,  forcing 
many  of  them  to  leave  their  doomed  houses; 
for,  in  spite  of  the  showers  of  molten  stones, 
the  fierce  detonations,  and  the  sight  of  the 
slowly  on-creeping  lava,  many  refused  to  be- 
lieve in  danger,  and,  when  they  clung  to  their 
miserable  hovels,  had  to  be  dragged  away  by 
force. 

Sunday  afternoon  all  of  Naples  was  taking 
vehicles  and  trams  out  to  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain to  get  a  near  view  of  the  eruption.  With 
great  difficulty  we  secured  a  cab  and  drove  out 
in  that  direction.  The  streets  of  the  lower  part 
of  the  city  were  already  filled  with  wandering 
crowds  of  refugees  carr^^ing  pitiful  loads  of 
bedding  and  clothing,  old  women  and  young 
children  being  helped  along  by  the  rest.  As 
a  rule  they  were  silent,  seeming  dazed  by  the 
catastrophe,  but  occasionally  loud  wails  would 
rise  and  all  the  passers-by  would  shake  their 
heads  and  miirmur,  "  Poverini!  " 
3£6 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

The  way  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain  was 
thronged  with  two  streams  of  vehicles  going 
in  opposite  directions,  one  carrying  excited, 
chattering  Neapolitans  out  to  see  the  show,  the 
other  bringing  in,  on  piles  of  household  goods, 
the  wretched  peasants,  who  had  been  driven 
forth  by  their  mother,  the  mountain.  They 
looked  silently  and  reproachfully  at  the  east- 
ward hurrying  band,  to  whom  their  misfortune 
was  merely  an  entertaining  spectacle. 

When  we  got  as  far  as  Resina,  which  is  built 
above  the  site  of  Herculaneum,  we  turned  into  a 
little  open  square  whence  we  had  an  iminter- 
rupted  view  of  the  mountain  from  its  base  to  its 
terrible  simimit.  The  ground  under  us  shook 
with  the  internal  nmiblings.  The  crater  had 
crumbled  so  that  its  a^i ul  mouth  was  twice  its 
ordinary  width  and  from  this  rose  to  the  zenith 
the  majestic  pillar  of  smoke  and  fire,  shot 
with  lightning.  At  the  top  it  spread  out  into 
the  dreaded  pine-tree  shape  which  always  means 
mischief.  Nothing  was  ever  more  awfully 
beautiful  than  this  column  of  constantly  chang- 
ing color,  with  the  fimies  writhing  and  bubbling 
327 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

into  wonderftil,  soft,  thick  puffs  of  smoke. 
Every  now  and  then  loud  explosions  rent  the 
air  and  gorgeous  electrical  displays  would  zig- 
zag through  the  dun  colored  mass. 

On  our  way  to  town  we  had  to  draw  up  on 
one  side  to  let  the  soldiers  press  back  the 
throngs  of  wretched  refugees  who  sought  to 
return  to  their  devastated  homes.  We  saw 
many  others  preparing  to  camp  by  the  roadside, 
spreading  out  bedding  and  getting  ready  their 
food.  The  poor  people  who  lived  along  the 
road  brought  out  of  their  slender  store  things 
for  the  refugees.  All  the  wayside  shrines  were 
lit  as  we  drove  back  and  many  people  were 
kneeling  in  front  of  them  with  bowed  heads, 
praying  aloud  for  mercy  and  pity. 

That  night  the  fall  of  ashes  became  so  thick 
that  the  lights  of  the  city  below  us  were  entirely 
blotted  out.  Even  the  one  across  the  street 
from  our  hotel  was  only  faintly  visible.  It  was 
like  gazing  into  the  depth  of  a  Dakota  blizzard 
to  look  out  that  night  at  Naples.  And  with 
the  falling  ashes  fell  a  great  silence.  The 
volcanic  dust  lay  so  thick  as  to  muffle  all  sounds 
8^ 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

of  wheels  or  hoofs  and  to  strangle  all  street  or 
city  noises. 

It  was  still  falling  the  next  morning,  hiding 
the  sun  and  the  light  of  day.  On  the  Chiaia  and 
the  Toledo,  the  two  principal  streets,  the  lights 
burned  all  day.  Many  shops  were  closed.  Most 
of  the  factories  stopped  work,  and  the  people 
on  the  streets  carried  umbrellas,  while  many 
wore  masks  to  protect  them  from  the  distressing 
ashes.  Every  leaf,  every  blossom,  every  blade 
of  grass  Was  coated  with  the  dun  colored  dust. 
The  once  beautiful  palms  and  ilexes  of  the  public 
gardens  looked  like  trees  in  a  petrified  forest. 
The  same  drab  hue  covered  the  pink,  yellow  and 
blue  palazzi  that  used  to  give  such  a  gay  effect 
to  Naples. 

And  still  the  ashes  fell.  The  city  by  this 
time  was  nearly  empty  of  the  tourists  who 
had  been  bringing  their  annual  harvest  to 
the  hotels. 

Monday  afternoon  I  again  drove  out  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountain.  This  time  the  road  was 
a  foot  deep  in  ashes.  In  some  places  a  vol- 
canic rain  had  fallen  and  changed  them  to 
Sd9 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

black  mud  which  lay  in  thick  masses  many 
feet  in  height  along  the  side  of  the  way, 
as  the  people  were  clearing  their  roofs  as 
fast  as  they  could,  the  im  won  ted  weight 
threatening  every  house.  By  the  time  we  got 
to  Resina  the  road  had  become  almost  impas- 
sable. The  horses  plowed  through  it,  breathing 
heavily.  The  coachman  got  down  and  said  that 
he  could  go  no  farther.  At  that  moment  a 
sudden  darkness  descended  on  us  and  out  of  the 
darkness  fell  a  terrific  shower  of  hot  water  and 
mud.  The  Italians  near  us  became  terrified. 
The  driver  besought  us,  with  tears  streaming 
down  his  face ,  to  return .  We  were  not  ready  yet ; 
we  had  seen  nothing  but  darkness,  ashes  and 
frightened  people,  so  we  told  him  to  get  under 
shelter,  and  we  started  to  walk  up  the  mountain- 
side. We  soon  passed  out  from  under  the  vol- 
canic shower  and  emerged  in  the  clearer  space 
directly  below  the  dreadful  cone.  Every  sprig  of 
vegetation  in  the  fields  about  us  had  been  killed 
and  covered  by  the  ashes.  The  desolation  was 
complete.  And  above  us  Vesuvius  belched 
forth  that  fearful  colimin  of  smoke  and  fire  — 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

which  rose,  scientists  who  were  on  the  spot 
said,  to  the  height  of  six  miles.  It  was  irre- 
sistibly fascinating  to  watch  the  convolutions  of 
the  writhing  smoke  spirals,  thick  and  of  an  angry 
gray  hue,  with  every  now  and  then  a  puff  of 
white  steam  like  a  bursting  bomb.  The  detona- 
tions were  not  so  loud  as  on  the  previous  day, 
but  the  mountain -sides  still  trembled  with 
suppressed  fury,  and  the  discharge  of  volcanic 
matter  was  much  greater.  By  this  time  the 
ashen  walls  of  the  crater  had  entirely  crumbled 
away,  and  the  mouth  yawned  across  the  whole 
summit.  Any  personal  emotion  like  fear  was 
lost  in  a  certain  awful  ecstasy  inspired  by  the 
spectacle.  Human  insignificance  is  a  wholesome 
realization. 

The  drive  back  to  the  city  was  slow  and  dis- 
tressing, through  darkness,  with  alternating 
showers  of  ashes  and  mud  making  the  road 
almost  impassable  for  the  poor,  laboring  horses. 
On  the  way  the  king  and  some  of  his  officers 
passed  us  in  an  automobile.  The  whole  party 
was  so  covered  with  mud  and  volcanic  dust  that 
it  was  hard  to  recognize  them. 
331 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

That  night  and  often  through  the  following 
days  we  saw  dreary  little  processions  of  people 
in  the  streets  carrying  candles  and  sacred 
images,  and  chanting  prayers,  as  they  walked 
from  church  to  church  through  the  softly  falling 
ashes.  Everywhere  every  one  spoke  to  every 
one  else  in  the  common  brotherhood  created 
by  a  great  catastrophe. 

The  sand  and  mud  storm,  of  which  we  got 
merely  the  outer  edge,  destroyed  the  towns  of 
Ottaiano  and  San  Giuseppe.  In  the  latter 
place,  as  the  people,  distraught  by  fear,  rushed 
into  the  streets,  the  priest  called  them  all  to 
come  to  the  church  to  pray  for  mercy.  Several 
hundred  were  gathered  there  when  the  roof 
fell  under  the  weight  of  stones  and  mud,  and 
two  hvindred  were  killed  or  fatally  injured. 
Altogether  I  believe  that  more  people  perished 
in  this  eruption  of  Vesuvius  than  in  the  San 
Francisco  disaster. 

The  usual  morning  throng  was  collected  in 

the  covered  market-place  at  Naples  on  the  first 

Tuesday  of  the  eruption  when  the  great  girders 

supporting  the  roof  gave  way,  with  a  grind- 

332 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

ing  crash  and  roar,  and,  coming  down,  buried 
scores  in  the  ruins.  The  number  of  those  killed 
and  wounded  here  went  up  into  the  hundreds. 

Some  Americans  who  were  to  sail  for  home 
early  Tuesday  morning  sent  all  their  luggage 
on  board  the  preceding  afternoon.  When  they 
went  down  in  the  evening  to  embark  on  the 
ship,  which  lay  out  in  the  harbor,  the  officers  of 
the  tender  refused  to  take  them,  as  the  ashes 
were  falling  so  thickly  that  everything  was 
enveloped  in  darkness,  and  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  find  the  ship.  They  were  obliged 
to  return  to  the  hotel  minus  even  hand-luggage 
and  wait  a  week  for  the  next  boat,  all  their 
belongings  going  to  America  without  them. 

Each  day  we  looked  out  in  the  morning  for 
some  signs  of  let  up  in  the  dreary  and  depressing 
fall  of  ashes.  On  the  Thursday,  nine  days  after 
the  beginning  of  the  eruption,  the  air  was  still 
so  thick  with  them,  as  we  drove  along  the  Chiaia, 
that  it  felt  like  snow  beating  against  our  faces, 
while  the  brown  shower  lying  on  everything 
and  everybody  took  away  all  differences  of 
appearance,  making  the  prince  look  like  the 
333 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

pauper.  One  of  the  most  disagreeable  of  the 
minor  featiires  of  those  ashen  days  was  that  it 
was  impossible  to  keep  the  hair  free  from  these 
volcanic  cinders.  In  spite  of  many  enveloping 
veils  it  became  so  permeated  that  the  daily 
dressing  was  like  dragging  the  comb  through  a 
sand  pile.  Each  hair  was  coated  with  the  im- 
palpable dust  and  gritted  audibly.  All  vitality 
and  gloss  and  color,  even,  disappeared.  Of 
course  the  ashes  ruined  clothes  and  shoes. 

And  still  the  dreadful  shower  continued. 
The  first  fall  was  a  pale  gray  in  color.  Then 
it  changed  to  a  dark,  almost  black  hue,  and  the 
latter  days  a  dim  brown  ash  fell.  All  these 
indicated  the  different  strata  that  the  mountain 
was  throwing  up,  the  last  being  evidently  iron, 
as  both  color  and  weight  indicated,  a  handful 
being  noticeably  heavy.  The  first  gray  fall 
was  pumice  stone  and  was  excellent  stuff  for 
polishing  brass  and  silver. 

Meanwhile  the  city  officials,  the  army,  the 

clergy  and  members  of  the  royal  family  all 

worked   day  and  night  to  rescue  and   succor 

the   sufferers.      There  were   many  tmrecorded 

334 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

deeds  of  heroism,  and  many  tales  of  distress 
and  danger.  The  wretched  dwellers  on  the 
mountain-sides  not  only  lost  their  homes  but 
also  the  use  of  their  land  for  a  generation.  It  is 
said  that,  though  ultimately  of  fertile  effect, 
it  takes  this  volcanic  dust  thirty  years  or  so 
to  amalgamate  thoroughly  with  the  soil  on 
which  it  falls. 

We  went  one  day  to  Torre  Annunziata  to 
see  the  place  where  the  mighty  flood  of  lava  had 
stopped  just  at  the  door  of  a  church.  Here  a 
miracle  had  been  wrought.  The  image  of  the 
Virgin  in  this  church  had  been  carried  to  the 
edge  of  the  on-coming  torrent.  The  latter  had 
paused  in  its  course,  and  then  turning,  plunged 
down  the  valley  to  the  left,  leaving  the  church 
and  its  little  encircling  cemetery  unharmed, 
though  the  statue  was  somewhat  singed. 

It  was  quite  an  awful  sight,  that  volcanic 
torrent  forty  feet  high  and  a  thousand  feet 
broad.  A  huge  and  ancient  stone  pine,  caught 
in  the  flood,  was  tossed  high  to  the  top  of  the 
stream,  singed  to  a  black  crisp.  Along  the 
course  of  the  torrent  stood  houses  cut  in  two, 
335 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

as  if  with  a  knife,  revealing  pathetic  interiors. 
One  on  the  edge  showed  a  section  of  an  upper 
room  with  a  crimson  sofa  tipping  on  the  sloping 
floor.  Pictures  still  hung  all  awry  on  the  walls 
and  curtains  flapped  at  the  windows.  The  lower 
part  of  the  house  was  flooded  with  the  lava, 
now  cooled  off  and  black. 

At  length  we  grew  weary  of  waiting  for  the 
mountain  to  subside.  Like  many  things  and 
many  people  it  didn't  seem  to  know  when  to 
stop.  It  kept  on  long  after  all  novelty  was 
passed.  It  became  tiresome,  monotonous; 
we  began  to  talk  of  other  things ;  we  grew  used 
to  the  twilit  days,  the  falling  ashes,  the  thick 
clouds  of  smoke,  the  muffled  sounds,  the  de- 
serted hotels,  to  the  vision  as  of  a  dead  city.  We 
began  to  long  for  simshine  and  normal  sen- 
sations, so  finally,  on  Easter  Sunday,  we  went 
to  Capri,  where  from  our  balconies,  across  a 
lavender  carpet  of  wistaria  in  fullest  bloom,  we 
could  look  over  the  sea  to  the  terrible  and  still 
belching  mountain. 

Spring  was  at  its  loveliest  there,  and,  as  we 
sat  in  the  warm  and  fragrant  sunlight,  on  those 
336 


OUR    FINAL    EXCITEMENT 

charming  terraces  and  saw  the  ships  pass  by 
from  all  the  ports  in  the  world  (though  it  was 
those  from  Africa  we  gazed  at  longest)  we  took 
time  to  marshal  our  many  memories  of  strange 
lands ;  and  to  realize  that  the  wonderful  journey 
to  which  we  had  so  long  looked  forward,  for 
which  we  had  so  long  planned,  which  we  had  so 
intensely  enjoyed,  was  now  in  the  past,  a  thing 
of  dreams,  a  fulfilled  realization. 


S87 


CHAPTER    XVII 

A   WORD    OF    COUNSEL 

T^OR  those  who  wish  to  make  one  of  the  most 
interesting  trips  in  the  world  and  visit  a 
strange  and  wonderful  continent,  I  will  give 
some  information  and  a  few  suggestions  as 
to  the  routes  and  best  way  and  time  to  make 
the  journey. 

Although  England  has  such  large  interests  on 
the  East  Coast  of  Africa,  she  has  no  first-class 
line  of  steamers  touching  at  the  ports  there. 
The  three  lines  which  carry  most  of  the  passen- 
ger service  are  the  Austrian  Lloyd, '  sailing 
from  Trieste,  the  Messagerie  Maritime  from 
Marseilles,  and  the  German  East  African  Line 
from  Hamburg,  touching  at  such  Mediterranean 
ports  as  Marseilles,  Genoa,  and  Naples.  The 
Austrian   Lloyd   boats   are  the   favorite   with 

^  Since  writing  the  above  the  service  of  this  line  has  been  dis- 
continued. 

^8 


A    WORD    OF    COUNSEL 

the  British  officials  on  the  East  Coast.  Of  the 
Messagerie  boats  I  know  Httle  except  that  they 
undoubtedly  have  an  excellent  table.  Of  the 
German  East  African  Line,  on  which  I  have 
travelled  three  times,  I  can  only  say  that  they 
have  the  advantages  and  defects  of  German 
lines  the  world  over.  You  always  feel  safe  on  a 
German  ship  —  even  if  you  do  have  veal  and 
pork  served  in  the  Red  Sea  with  the  thermome- 
ter hovering  near  the  hundred  mark.  This 
line  makes  the  entire  circuit  of  Africa.  Do  you 
realize  that  Africa  is  the  only  continent  which 
can  be  entirely  circumnavigated  by  the  ordinary 
traveller?  You  can  sail  from  Hamburg,  either 
going  down  the  West  Coast  and  returning  by 
the  East  Coast,  or  vice  versa,  a  trip  which  takes 
about  three  months.  The  larger  ships  on  this 
line  are  very  comfortable.  The  smaller  ones 
are  to  be  avoided.  You  will  need  rather  a  large 
and  assorted  wardrobe  to  make  the  journey 
comfortably,  but  as  you  have  access  to  the 
luggage-room  on  certain  days  of  the  week,  this 
is  easily  arranged.  A  useful  dress  for  women 
is  a  thin,  unlined  silk  or  cotton  costimie  of 
339 


SOME   AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

black  and  white  check,  or  dark  blue,  as  at 
times  of  coaling  the  ship  is  apt  to  get  very  dirty. 
This  should  be  supplemented  by  light  summer 
dresses  and  some  pretty  frocks  to  be  worn  in 
the  evenings.  For  men  a  khaki  suit  and  a  few 
white  linen  suits  are  desirable,  in  addition  to  an 
ordinary  outfit. 

As  the  southeast  monsoon  blows  from  June  to 
the  end  of  September,  it  is  not  advisable  to  take 
the  trip  down  the  East  Coast  at  that  season. 
Rough  seas  are  unavoidable,  and  as  the  heat, 
especially  in  the  Red  Sea,  is  apt  to  be  intense,  the 
fact  that  ports  have  to  be  kept  closed  makes  life 
below  decks  imendurable,  even  for  good  sailors. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  whole  journey 
is  the  trip  on  the  Uganda  Railway  up  to  the  lake 
and  on  the  steamer  either  crossing  the  lake  or 
making  the  ten  days'  tour  of  the  lake.  The  trav- 
eller can  break  his  passage  on  the  coast  and  wait 
a  month  for  the  next  boat.  This  month  can 
be  well  spent  at  Mombasa,  Nairobi  and  En- 
tebbe. From  Nairobi  expeditions  can  be  made 
into  the  surrounding  country,  where  excellent 
shooting  and  hunting  can  be  had.  From  En- 
340 


A    WORD    OF    COUNSEL 

tebbe  most  interesting  journeys  may  be  made 
into  the  interior.  The  month  will  pass  all  too 
quickly. 

The  other  ports  on  the  way  south  can  be 
sufficiently  seen  in  the  days  the  steamer  spends 
in  unloading  and  taking  on  cargo. 

From  Beira  one  can  go  up  by  rail  and  take  in 
Salisbury,  Rhodesia,  and  the  great  Victoria 
Falls,  the  pride  of  Great  Britain,  one  of  the 
magnificent  spectacles  of  the  world.  According 
to  report,  these  falls  have  quite  put  out  of 
joint  the  nose  of  our  beautiful  Niagara.  From 
Salisbury  the  traveller  can  go  by  the  Cape  to 
Cairo,  railway  to  Pretoria  and  Johannesburg,  and 
thence  can  catch  his  steamer  either  at  Durban 
or  at  Cape  Town.  Or  else,  if  he  does  not  care  to 
make  this  detour  to  the  Zambesi,  w^hich  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year  is  an  unpleasant 
trip,  owing  to  drought  and  dust,  he  can  stay 
on  his  ship  until  he  arrives  at  Delagoa  Bay, 
w^hence  he  can,  by  train,  in  twenty -four  hours, 
reach  Johannesburg.  From  there,  after  he  has 
seen  the  mines  and  Pretoria  (which  Hes  a  couple 
of  hours  away)  he  can  go  to  Durban  and  see, 
341 


SOME    AFRICAN    HIGHWAYS 

en  route,  Natal  —  called  "  the  garden  of  South 
Africa  "  —  and  even  stop  a  few  hours  in  Pieter- 
maritzburg,  the  capital  of  Natal,  before  re- 
joining his  ship  en  route  to  the  Cape.  On  the 
way  to  Cape  Town  two  pretty  harbors  and  towns 
are  visited,  East  London  and  Port  Elizabeth. 

Table  Bay,  as  the  harbor  of  Cape  Town  is 
called,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  harbors  in  the 
world.  Flat-topped  Table  Mountain,  leaning 
over  the  city  with  massive,  frowning  ramparts, 
is  very  impressive.  The  whole  bay  is  ringed 
with  moimtains  and  hills  vying  in  lovely  tints 
with  those  of  Southern  Italy,  while  the  waters 
of  the  harbor  reflect  the  tints  of  sky  and  shore. 

If  the  visitor  to  South  Africa  prefers  to  take 
in  Kimberly  and  the  diamond  mines  to  seeing 
the  coast  towns,  he  can  go  there  by  rail,  and 
thence  to  Cape  Town,  crossing  the  Karoo 
Desert.  This  is  in  case  he  is  travelling  by  the 
German  line.  The  Austrian  and  French  boats 
only  go  to  Durban,  and  then  retrace  their  steps 
up  the  East  Coast  to  their  respective  starting- 
points,  Trieste  and  Marseilles. 

The  German  boats  on  their  way  up  the  West 
S4S 


M 


A    WORD    OF    COUNSEL 

Coast  stop  at  Swakopmund,  the  port  of  German 
Southwest  Africa,  and  at  Madeira. 

At  every  port  in  landing  you  can  find  porters, 
guides,  and  interpreters.  Also  hotels  —  though 
one  must  not  expect  to  find  these  hostelries 
like  the  Waldorf-Astoria,  Carlton  or  Ritz. 
Of  the  two  principal  ones  in  Mombasa  it  is  said 
that  if  you  go  to  one  you  always  wish  you  had 
gone  to  the  other.  There  are  excellent  hotels 
in  all  the  South  African  cities,  and  travel  there 
is  in  every  way  most  comfortable,  and  not  as 
expensive  as  in  America. 

With  a  reasonable  amount  of  care  and  a  not 
necessarily  large  bank  accoimt,  you  can  make, 
with  safety  and  comfort,  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightfully interesting  voyages  in  the  world. 
But  certain  things  you  must  have.  First  and 
foremost,  good  health  —  secondly,  an  open 
mind,  free  from  prejudices  —  thirdly,  a  willing- 
ness to  make  light  of  trifles  and  to  put  up  with 
small  discomforts.  Only  thus  equipped  can 
you  get  the  full  joy  and  benefit  of  this  great 
journey. 

THE   END. 

345 


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Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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•-f-rrKEUEY.  CAI.IF-OPNI/. 


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